Vacation in LA
by Yvette1
Summary: The Turtles, Splinter, and Ashton go on a vacation to Los Angeles, and end up dealing with a lot more than they bargained for. *Last three chapters* *Please R&R!* The finale! Thanks for all the reviews ppl, you've been wonderful! *mwah*
1. Preparing for the trip

Disclaimer: I think it goes without saying that the Turtles don't belong to me, they're copyright Mirage Studios. Dragon Lord, Wick, Quease, the dragon warriors, Master Splinter . . . all of them don't belong to me either.

However, Ashton is 100% mine. If you don't know who she is, read DNA Mix-Up to find out. There are other characters in this story which are all mine as well; you'll recognize which ones those are as you go along.

Well, without further delay, I present . . . .

Vacation in L.A.

It'd been a long time since their last vacation. They'd battled dragons, gangsters, mad scientists, bounty hunters . . . it all got very tiring sometimes. 

It was late March, and the Turtles thought that it was about time for a vacation. The dragons had been quiet for a good while, the gangsters had moved their practices to Las Vegas, nothing at all was going on with Dr. Quease, and Bonesteel was off capturing more animals in another country. The Turtles, Splinter, and Ashton decided to go on vacation to Los Angeles, California for a couple of weeks; just to take a well-deserved break.

The Turtle lair was calm; for the most part, on this cool springish afternoon. They had finished packing for their trip, and were just waiting for nighttime to come to leave discreetly for their vacation.

Raphael and Leo sparred in the dojo. Though with those two, it was difficult to tell if it was sparring, or actual fighting.

Donny sat at his computer with a small device and some floppy disks nearby.

Ashton walked over to the computer and slightly leaned over his shoulder.

Donatello leaned to the side a bit, away from her. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"What are you doing?" asked Ashton.

"Why do you care?" asked Donny as he continued typing, his eyes never leaving the screen.

Ashton stopped leaning over. "I dunno, just bored I guess."

Donny sat up straight again. "I'm putting the 'eye in the sky' program on disk so I can put it in my portable machine. This way, I can track what's going on around us, wherever we are."

"Interesting." said Ashton, somewhat absent-mindedly. "When are we leaving?"

"Ashton, you've asked me that a dozen times, don't ask anymore." said Donny. "When its time, you'll know."

Ashton sighed heavily and went into the kitchen where Mikey was preparing something to eat. "What are you making?" she asked as she leaned on the counter near him.

Mikey glanced up at her. "My specialty, popcorn, ketchup, and relish spread." he grinned. "Want some?" 

"Yech." said Ashton making a face. "I think I'll pass."

In the dojo, Raph and Leo crossed the line from sparring, to fighting.

"You're gonna take that back!!" exclaimed Leo.

"Make me." smirked Raph.

Leo got an angry look on his face and attacked Raph head on. He then grabbed one of Raph's sai and roughly tossed it out of the room.

"Hey!" exclaimed an annoyed Raph.

Raph went after his sai, with Leo following close behind. 

Out in the living room, Leo made Raph drop both of his sai, Leo dropped his katanna, and they started trying to wrestle each other to the floor.

Venus came out of her room as she heard the commotion and looked at the two fighting. "Oh no, not again." she said as she sighed heavily.

Master Splinter came out of his room and looked at Raph and Leo fighting.

As soon as they saw Master Splinter, they stopped, Raph with Leo in a headlock.

Master Splinter was about to say something, then just sighed heavily. "Tell me when it is time to leave." he said, going back into his room.

Raph removed Leo from the headlock and walked off.

"Loser!" Leo exclaimed.

"Kiss my shell." Raph commented.

"Boys." commented Venus as she shook her head and went back into her room.


	2. The Journey

Nighttime soon arrived. Raph, Donny, Mikey, and Leo put on their trenchcoats and hats. Venus and Splinter put on their cloaks, and Ashton put on her hat and sunglasses. Carefully concealed in their disguises, they all grabbed whatever luggage they planned on taking with them, left the lair, and proceeded to a remote location on the outskirts of Manhattan.

There, they waited near seldom-traveled train-tracks in a somewhat deserted area. 

"So, what exactly are we waiting for again?" asked Mikey.

"A cargo train." said Leo.

Donny glanced at his watch. "It should be coming through any minute now." 

The distant bells alerted the group to the coming train. They all picked up their luggage, and hid near some bushes as the train came closer. The bright lights of the train nearly blinded them, and made them momentarily visible in their hiding place.

After a little while, the train slowed down to a crawl as it waited for another train to pass.

"Now's our chance, get on." said Leo.

They all quickly ran from the bushes, to one of the back cars of the train. They jumped into a car whose door was partially broken so that it was always slightly open. 

After they were on the train, they settled down in the darker parts of the traincar. The train soon began to pick up pace, and they were off to California.

"So, how long's this trip gonna take?" asked Leo as he leaned back on a bail of hay.

"Approximately three to four days. This train doesn't make very many stops." said Donny.

"That's good to know. I can't wait to see L.A.!" said Mikey.

"Me neither. I've been meaning to buy some suede to make a second outfit. I can't find any in N.Y." said Ashton, pulling a loose string off of her pants. "This thing is coming apart."

"Finally, warm weather." said Splinter with a slight smile. "The cold was aggravating my arthritis terribly."

"Too bad I couldn't bring the cycle, otherwise I'd be tearin up those L.A. streets in no time." said Raph with a smirk.

"And getting caught doing so." said Master Splinter as he looked at Raph accusingly.

Raphael pretended not to see the look Splinter gave him.

"The scenery is so beautiful." said Venus as she looked out of the opening of the train car.

Leo looked at Venus. "Yeah, beautiful."

Venus turned to him.

Leo looked back at her and smiled.

Venus smiled back at him, then turned shyly away and went to lay down.

Everyone soon fell asleep, enjoying their free ride to California.

A few days later, the train began slowing down.

Warm sun poured in from the opening and hit Leo's face. He winced a bit and soon opened his eyes. A distant palm tree caught his attention. He then sat up and looked to the side of him to see Venus laying there, peacefully sleeping.

"Hey, wake up Mei, I think we're here." said Leo, gently rubbing her shoulder.

Venus stirred a bit. "Hmm?" she opened her eyes and soon sat up. "What? We're here?"

"I think so." said Leo. He got up and went over to Donny, and began waking him up. 

"What?" Donny mumbled, half-asleep.

"I think we're here." said Leo.

Donny sat up and stretched. "Hmm, looks like we are here, finally."

Raph, Mikey, and Master Splinter soon woke up. 

"We're here? Yes!" said Mikey excitedly. Then he turned to the still-sleeping Ashton. "Hey kiddo, wake up, we're here."

"Huh?" she sleepily asked.

"We're here." said Mikey.

"Where?" asked Ashton, still not fully awake.

"California." said Mikey. "Come on, get up."

Ashton slowly rose to her hands and knees, then stretched, extending her nails for a moment, then retracting them. She soon joined everyone as they watched the warm sun rise higher into the sky, and the train come to a full stop.

Master Splinter saw people coming around the train to unload cargo. "Humans." he said thoughtfully.

"Don't worry Master, I've got a plan." said Leo. "Put on your disguises everyone."

They all did so quickly. Following Leo, they all got out of the train with their luggage, and quickly, but unnoticeably, crept to the other side of the train, and quickly made their way down a hill behind some bushes.

They soon came to a backstreet with a manhole. 

Raph and Mikey took off the manhole cover, and they all jumped inside.

"Now, to find a suitable place to call our vacation home." said Leo as they began walking down the passageways of the sewer.


	3. Vacation Home

****

The group traveled through the sewers for a while before coming to a stepladder that led further down into the sewers.

"Wow, how deep underground do these sewers go?" asked Leo.

"Apparently pretty deep." said Donny. "Come on, the deeper the better. No one's gonna find us down there."

They all climbed down the ladder and into the lower part of the sewer.

"Wow, it sure smells a whole lot better than it does up there too." said Ashton.

"I agree." said Venus. 

They walked around for a while before finding a secluded corridor that was reached by walking through a small passageway. 

Leo looked around once they were inside. "It looks secure enough."

Donny checked some parts of the ceiling. "Shouldn't be hard to put lights up in here either."

"Well then, I think we have found our temporary home." said Master Splinter.

"Yes! Now let's set things up before nighttime, I wanna take a look around tonight." said Mikey as he put down his luggage.

Splinter looked wary about the idea of letting them look around, but he knew he couldn't stop them if he wanted to. He just sighed and began unpacking.

By late afternoon, Donny had set up lights, and a semi-sophisticated alarm system to notify them of any intruders in the vicinity. 

They had all had a nice lunch, and were lounging around on their beach chairs and blankets, as they had no time to get furniture. 

Splinter peacefully napped on his blanket in his corner of the room, basking in the warmth of the lair.

Ashton looked around the lair somewhat disappointedly.

"What's the matter Ashton?" asked Mikey.

"There isn't anything to climb up on." she said dejectedly.

"Oh, sorry kiddo." said Donny. "Maybe when we go out tonight there'll be some trees for you to climb or something."

"I sure hope so." said Ashton.

That night, the group prepared to leave for a night on the town.

"Be careful." warned Splinter. "You are not familiar with this area, there could be dangers that you are not aware of."

"We know Master, we'll be careful." said Leo.

"Besides, we got Ashton, she'll hear the danger before we even see it." said Raph.

"Take good care to make sure everyone is safe." said Splinter.

"Don't worry, I will." said Ashton.

"Let's rock n' roll!" said Mikey as they began leaving.

"Kids." said Master Splinter, shaking his head.

As the Turtles and Ashton left, Donny noticed something shining in the corner of the lair. He examined it briefly to find it was a small metal box with a lock on it.

"Hmm, I wonder how _this_ got here." he thought to himself.

"Come on Donny!" Mikey shouted towards him.

"Coming!" said Donny. He curiously looked back at the small metal box, then went and followed everyone else out.


	4. City Visit:Voices

****

Outside of the sewers, the Turtles and Ashton were standing by a manhole they just came out of, on a backstreet.

Ashton's ears twitched in different directions. She heard distant music, cars, people, the rustling of trees . . . 

"Trees." said Ashton.

"Trees??" asked Raph. "You gotta hear more than just that."

"Yeah, I do, but I wanna see where the trees are." said Ashton as she began walking off.

"Hey, wait for us." said Mikey.

They all walked for a little while in hidden areas before they reached a park with many trees.

Ashton smiled widely, and quickly jumped up into one. 

Suddenly, she shrieked, and jumped back down.

"What happened?" asked Raph.

"Scorpions." said Ashton. "These trees have scorpions!" she said upsetly.

"Maybe that's not how all of them are." said Donny. "Tree scorpions don't live in all sorts of trees."

"Besides, weren't there scorpions in Brazil?" asked Mikey.

"Not really, we had snakes, weird bugs and tarantulas, but I don't remember running into any scorpions." said Ashton. She then looked back up at the tree, and climbed up into it again. The tree shook for a little while, and Ashton could be heard hissing and growling. The noise soon subsided, and all was quiet.

"Ashton?" Leo called up into the tree.

Ashton then laid stretched out on a branch above everyone. "Its fine. The scorpions made the wise choice to move over while I relax up here." she grinned.

Raph chuckled. "Ashton takin charge."

"No doubt." she said with a smile.

"Come on, I wanna see the city." said Mikey.

"No better way to do that than rooftops of abandoned buildings." said Leo. "Come on Ashton, its time to go."

"Aw man, and I was just getting comfy." said Ashton.

"We'll come back another time." said Leo.

Aston reluctantly jumped out of the tree and went with the Turtles to the city.

In the city, they scanned the scene from abandoned rooftops.

"This place ain't too shabby." said Raph. "I bet the pizza still doesn't beat New York's though."

"Oh man, you said the 'P' word Raph!" complained Leo.

"Pizza place! We need to find a pizza place!" said an excited Mikey.

"Well we'd have to go down there to find one." said Donny.

"And we have no disguises with us." said Leo.

"Yeah, but Ashton can go." said Mikey.

"How? I have no hat or sunglasses." said Ashton.

"Look at how some of those people down there are dressed, I don't think they'd care!" said Mikey.

Ashton looked down. "Well, I guess not." she said uneasily "All right, I'll find you a pizza place." She then went down into the city, looking around for a pizza place. She found one, as well as a store where she bought some suede to make new clothes.

That night, after all of their exploring, the Turtles and Ashton went back to their temporary lair to rest.

As they traveled to their lair, they began to hear voices.

"What the . . ." said Raph.

"Do you hear that?" asked Leo.

"Loud and clear." said Ashton.

"Me too." said Donny.

"Where is it coming from?" asked Leo.

Ashton's ears twitched. "I don't know, I can't hear it that well anymore." 

"Hmm . . ." thought Donny.

"Come on, let's just get back home." said Leo as he and the others walked more quickly.

Back at the lair, Master Splinter contented himself reading a book while drinking tea.

"We're back Master, and alive." said Raph.

Master Splinter looked up. "Excellent. How was your trip?"

"Fun. The city is really nice." said Mikey.

"I would've liked to spend more time with the trees." Ashton complained.

"We're here for two weeks; you'll have time." said Donny. He then went to his portable "eye in the sky" program and booted it up. He looked at the perimeters, and noticed nothing unusual. "I wonder who the voices belonged to." he thought. A yawn alerted him to the fact that he was more tired than he felt. Donny then got ready for bed.

Everyone was soon in bed, and fast asleep.

Somewhere around the Turtles' temporary lair, two shadows stood nearby talking.

"I heard those voices loud and clear. Who could be down _here_?" asked a soft-spoken female voice. "No one _ever _comes down here."

"Well, whoever they are, they better stay away from _our_ part of the sewer." said a female voice that sounded a little tougher than the first. "Or else."

The two shadows then walked off to the opposite direction of the Turtles' temporary lair.


	5. Getting Breakfast

****

The next morning, Ashton put on her hat and sunglasses, and went out to get breakfast for her and the others. As she came out of the backstreet manhole, she felt the warm sun pour over her, and smiled.

She closed the manhole back, then turned to walk out to the busy sidewalk. People hurriedly walked up and down the street, cars honked their horns impatiently, people yelled across the street to each other, and smog and smoke filled the air.

Ashton coughed as an old car shot out of the intersection, leaving behind a cloud of smoke. "Man, and I thought New York was bad!" she complained. She then looked around, and crossed the street to Dunkin Donuts.

Inside the Dunkin Donuts, Ashton stood in the long line.

When it finally came to her, she glanced at the menu, then turned to the cashier.

"Can I help you?" the man asked.

"Yes, I'd like 5 plain bagels with cream cheese, a tea with cream and sugar, and a coffee with cream and sugar." said Ashton.

The cashier typed in the cash register. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Yes. A plain bagel with bacon and cheese."

The cashier entered it into the cash register.

"Raw, bacon."

The cashier looked up. "Excuse me ma'am?"

"Raw bacon. I don't like the way it tastes when its cooked." said Ashton.

The cashier looked at her funny. "Ma'am . . . "

Ashton folded her arms stubbornly.

The cashier gave Ashton a funny look, and reluctantly entered the odd sandwich into the total.

Ashton paid the man, got her food, and left the restaurant. She then continued on to get back to the lair.

As she was about to turn a corner to go to the street where the manhole was, she heard someone call her name.

"Ashton." a calm, male voice said.

Ashton quickly turned to the side and began looking around. 

As the crowd walking down the sidewalk thinned, Ashton saw a guy casually leaning against a light pole. He was somewhat pale for L.A. at this time of year, young, wore black pants, a black sleeveless top, and dark sunglasses. He stood looking at her with his arms folded.

Ashton looked at him with curiosity, as well as apprehension; something about him wasn't right.

The guy then smiled at Ashton, but it was no regular smile. His smile revealed two sharp fangs as part of his set of front teeth.

Ashton looked at him in shock as he stood there smiling at her. Nothing else seemed to exist to her except this strange young man leaned against a light pole. 

Suddenly, just as quickly as he had appeared to her, he vanished. Ashton looked around, but no longer saw him; as if he vanished into thin air.

Ashton then quickly turned the corner to go to the manhole. She looked around frequently, making sure that he was no where around her. Then she opened the manhole and jumped in.

Her heart pounded as she walked to the lair. 

"Who _was_ that guy?" she thought to herself as she walked back to the lair.

At the lair, Ashton set the food down on a table, and sat down on a chair, looking distant.

"Ashton? Are you all right?" asked Venus.

Ashton looked somewhat startled. "What?"

Venus looked at her with concern.

"Oh, I'm fine." she lied. "Its just that, that . . . . my hat almost flew off. Yeah, my hat almost flew off. Wouldn't want that to happen." she said, faking a smile.

Venus gave her a disbelieving look.

"Food!" exclaimed Mikey as he came over to the table.

Ashton leaned to the side, and touched the table, then looked at it. "Wait a minute, we didn't have a table when I left." she said. Then stood up. "We didn't have these chairs either."

"Oh, me and Raph found those." said Donny. "We went out to look around and found an area where there was a lot of old furniture."

"So we took some." said Raph, opening one of the bags of bagels.

"Oh." said Ashton.

Leo opened a bagel. "Raw bacon? Yech."

Ashton took it. "That'd be mine."

"They actually gave you one with raw bacon? Wow." said Leo.

"Surprised me too." Ashton then bit into it. "Mmm . . ."

She soon dismissed the strange incident earlier as she ate.


	6. Knocked Out Cold

"Who took my table?!" exclaimed a female voice in another part of the sewer.

Standing in the same part of the sewer where Donny and Raph were earlier, was a female mutant Turtle with a gray bandanna. She looked at the array of furniture that was now missing a table, and complained heartily. "I needed that table!"

Another female mutant Turtle, this one with a dark pink bandanna, looked around. "I bet it was one of them people we heard last night." the rougher-voiced Turtle said.

"Why would _anyone_ want sewer furniture?" the gray-banded Turtle asked in her normal soft voice.

"Beats me. Prolly some bums lookin for somethin to eat on." said the pink-banded Turtle. "Looks like they took some'a ya chairs too."

The soft-spoken one sighed heavily. "Now I have to go back to the junkyard tonight and find another table." 

"I say we find them morons who's livin in our sewer and takin our stuff and show them who they're messing wit." said the other as she pounded her fists together.

"Violence isn't the answer to everything, Cori." said the gray-banded one. "Besides, its best if no one knows we're down here. Hopefully they'll leave."

"Not before they take all our stuff!" said Cori, the pink-banded one, upsetly. "Rita, yo you don't think they'll take my cycle do you?"

"I seriously doubt it. You've hidden it better than any of our stuff is hidden, I doubt they'll find it." said the gray-banded one, Rita.

"Yeah, I guess ya right." said Cori. "But I still wanna check on it."

"You go right on ahead, I'm gonna go get something. I'll meet you back home.

"Okay." said Cori, then she walked off to another part of the sewer.

Rita sighed. "Well, if I can't have my table the least I could have is my toolbox." She then walked off to another part of the sewer.

Donny left the lair and was walking around with his portable "eye in the sky" machine, mapping out different parts of the sewer. "Man, there sure are a lot of different corridors in this place." he thought.

Cori walked to her motorcycle, and suddenly heard humming. She then quickly hid behind a corner, and grabbed a wrench from her tool area nearby.

On the other side, Donny came around and spotted the motorcycle with red and pink detailing.

"Hey, what's _this_ doing down here?" he asked curiously, going over to it. 

Cori then had been slowly getting as close to the voice as possible all along. She was soon very close to him, and without looking, came out of hiding quickly, and knocked him over the head with the wrench. She then looked down and quickly dropped her wrench.

"Ah!" she exclaimed. "Oh no, what'd I do?!"

Cori looked at Donny with curiosity. "Whoa, I've never seen him before." she sighed heavily. "Oh boy." She then looked around, then put her arms underneath of Donny's, and began dragging him back to her home.


	7. Revived

"Where _is_ he?" asked Leo as he began pacing around the lair. "Donny's been gone over an hour now."

"Maybe there's a lot to map out?" suggested Mikey.

Leo looked at him skeptically.

At the other lair, Donny was laid down on a couch.

"Nice going Cori, you knocked him out cold." said Rita after looking Donny over.

"Wow cool, a like, guy Turtle." said another female Turtle, this one with a yellow bandanna. "Think there's like, anymore?"

"Who knows." said Rita. "Its fascinating that we're not the only mutants though."

"Coming through." said a female British voice.

A mutant pigeon came through the crowd of female Turtles with a pan of cold water and a washcloth. She then dipped the washcloth in the pan, wrung it out a little, then began patting Donny's face with it.

"Corina dear, what were you doing knocking people over their heads with a bloody wrench anyway?" asked the pigeon.

"I'm sorry Pidgina, I, I thought he was gonna take my cycle, like he took Rita's table and chairs. I didn't know he was a . . . . sorry." said Cori.

Just then, Donny groaned and began stirring a lot.

"He's waking up." said Pidgina, as she began standing back.

Donny turned his head a bit, and slowly began opening his eyes. Everything was fuzzy, then became clearer. He stared straight up at Rita, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Aah!" he exclaimed.

Rita was startled. "Aah!"

"Why are you like, screaming? Its not like he's a like, human." said the yellow-banded Turtle.

Donny sat up quickly, then winced. "Ow, my head . . . " he said while holding it.

"Sorry." said Cori.

Donny looked over at Cori with a puzzled expression on his face.

"I kinda sorta maybe hit ya over the head with a pretty heavy duty wrench."

"Ah geez, thanks." Donny said, holding his head. "Why?"

"I thought you were gonna take my cycle." said Cori as Pidgina gave Donny some tea. "Like you took Rita's table."

"And chairs." Rita added.

Donny looked at her. "Those were yours?"

Rita nodded.

"I'm sorry."

"Its ok, you didn't know." said Rita, somewhat shyly. She'd never been around a guy Turtle before, and she was a bit shy about it.

Donny sipped some tea as his headache went away. "Mmm." he swallowed the tea. "The others are probably worried about me."

"Others?" asked Rita curiously.

"Yeah, we came here on vacation." 

"More like, guys?" asked the yellow-banded one.

"Yeah . . . ."

"Psychedelic!"

"Shelly, do calm down dear." Pidgina said to the yellow-banded one.

Shelly calmed down outside, but still felt excited inside; she couldn't wait to see the others.

"I should really tell them what happened." said Donny as he began to stand up. "Leo's liable to be pacing around right about now." As he stood up, a wave of dizziness overcame him, and he sat back down. "Ohh man."

"What's the matter?" asked Rita.

"I got a little dizzy there." said Donny, holding his head.

Rita sighed heavily then gave Cori an accusive stare.

"I'll be fine." said Donny as he began to get up again.

Rita stopped him from getting up. "No, you're not fine yet. You're still recovering from that . . . incident." she said, then turned to Cori. "Why don't you go get them?"

"I don't even know where they are." said Cori.

"They're in a passageway a little while's away from where I found that motorcycle." said Donny.

Rita thought for a moment. "Sounds like the area I left my diskette case . . ."

"Was it in a metal box?" asked Donny.

Rita nodded.

"That's it then." said Donny. "I saw the box the first day we were there."

"Ohh, then that's settled." said Rita, then she turned to Cori. "It's where I planned on relocating my lab to."

"Ohh, over there." said Cori. "All right. So I just go there, and say, 'hey, I knocked your friend out, now he's back at our place, let's go'?"

"Don't be silly." said Pidgina. "Tell them that they're friend is quite all right and is recovering . . . um, is at our residence."

"I wanna come!" exclaimed Shelly excitedly.

"No, you have to help me clear this place up, it's a sty!" said Pidgina.

"Awww, do I have to?" asked Shelly disappointedly.

"You most certainly do. I will not have guests here with all this mess!" said Pidgina.

Shelly sighed heavily as she got up to start cleaning.

Cori then began leaving. "I'll be back soon." 

Donny watched her leave, then turned to Rita. "She's not gonna, ya know, hurt them too is she?"

"No." said Rita with a slight giggle. "She may get a little violent at times, but right now, I think she's too embarrassed to do anything more."

Donny sighed in relief.

"Now, you sit right here and rest while I get you something for that headache." said Rita, taking Donny's empty teacup from him.

"Thanks." smiled Donny.

"No problem." said Rita, smiling back.


	8. Getting Acquainted Pt1

"I'm getting real worried now, we should go look for him." said Leo.

"No need." said a voice.

They all looked to the side to see Cori standing there.

"Who are you?!" asked an alarmed Leo.

"Relax. I got your friend." said Cori.

Raph pushed past Leo. "What did you do to him?" he demanded.

Cori took a step back from Raph. "Umm . . . . that's not important." Then she sighed heavily. "Look, he's fine, and he's at our house."

"Who's _our_?" asked Leo.

"Me, my sisters, and our, well, mother, sorta." said Cori.

"More mutant Turtle babes? All right!" exclaimed Mikey.

"You remind me of my sister." she said. "Look, just come on. We're not gonna kill ya."

"How do we know we can trust you?" asked Raph.

"Look man, your friend couldn't come, so he sent me. He's waiting for you all back at our house." said Cori. "And anyway, I wouldn't be so cocky, I know these sewer systems better than you all do. This place right here is gonna be my sister's lab one day soon. You all are trespassers on our sewer grounds; you're lucky I'm being somewhat nice here."

Everyone was quiet.

"Let's just go." said Venus as she began to walk over to Cori.

"Just when ya think life couldn't get any more interesting . . . " said Ashton, following suit.

Everyone soon followed Cori.

Back at the other lair, Rita and Donny were sitting at the kitchen table as Cori came in.

"They're here." said Cori.

Leo, Raph, Mikey, Venus, Splinter, and Ashton all walked into the lair.

"Why, this one's _way_ bigger than ours at home." said Ashton as she looked around.

Shelly came out of her room. "Ohmygosh! They're here!"

Pidgina came from her room. "Welcome to our home. Please, have a seat."

The Turtles, Splinter, and Ashton looked around, stunned.

"Wow." said Leo.

"Hey guys." said Donny from the kitchen.

"Donny!" said Leo as he and the others walked over to him. "Is this where you've been all this time?"

"Well yeah, sorta." said Donny.

"Cori like, hit him over the head with a like, wrench." said Shelly.

Cori pushed her. "Ay why you had to say that for?!"

"Oops, like, sorry Cori." said Shelly apologetically.

Leo, Mikey, Raph, and Ashton looked accusively at Cori.

"Geez you all, I'm sorry!" said Cori. "Ah, I gotta get outta here." she then walked off.

"Sit down, sit down. We have much to discuss!" said Pidgina as she began serving tea to everyone.

Over the next couple of hours talking, everyone began getting acquainted. Rita relayed the story of how a chemical plant explosion was the cause of their mutation. Donny and Ashton explained Ashton's story, as there were a lot of questions about how she looked.

It was now late evening, and the Turtles were all hanging around the large lair.

"This is really something else, I have always thought after Venus, there were no other mutants in the world." said Splinter as he sat with Pidgina in the living room.

"I really don't know much about this mutation business, all I know is, I can say I like being a mutant pidgeon. I wasn't ever really a normal pidgeon anyway. Normal pigeons don't live on librarian's windowsills while they're babies, and learn things. Mutation was a gift to me." said Pidgina.

"I must say, being a mutant rat has me doing more productive things than I would ordinarily be doing." said Splinter, then he sipped some tea.

Pidgina nodded in agreement.

On the other side of the living room, Cori watched television with Raph, Mikey, and Shelly. Nothing really interesting was on, well, to Raph and Cori anyway. Mikey and Shelly laughed over the stupidity going on in the television program.

Raph turned to Cori. "You know, I just keep thinking, what if that had been a human you'd whacked over the head with the wrench? Then what?"

"Then what? Nothin. I would've dragged their unconscious behind to a manhole, and pushed him or her above ground; simple as that." said Cori. "They would've had no business being this deep in the sewers anyhow."

"Eh, true." said Raph.

"Now drop the wrench incident okay? Just drop it or I'll drop you." said Cori.

"Is that a challenge?" asked Raph.

"Don't test me Raphael, don't test me." 

Mikey looked over at Cori and Raph, then began moving away from them, pulling Shelly to the side with him.

"What?" asked Shelly.

"Those two look like they're about to fight. And knowing Raph, I don't wanna be anywhere near that G when he gets mad."

"Ohhh, I know what u like, mean. Cori likes to like, fight." said Shelly. She noticed the two glaring at each other. "Uh, we better go join your friends over there at the table."

"Good idea." said Mikey as he and Shelly got up to join Donny, Leo, and Venus at the table.

"You really think you could beat me?" asked Raph, somewhat teasingly.

"I don't think I could beat you, I _know_ I could beat you." said Cori. "And if you don't wanna get dropped, I suggest you stop."

"Dinner's ready!" Rita called from the kitchen.

"You're lucky." said Raph as he got up. "I'll get you later."

Cori got up and roughly pushed Raph out of her on the way to the kitchen. "Dumbshell." she muttered under her breath.


	9. Getting Acquainted Pt2

After dinner, everyone relaxed as they digested their food.

"Wow Rita, you're a _really_ good cook." said Donny as he sat back in his chair in the kitchen.

"Yeah, I'm impressed." said Ashton. "And I normally don't like cooked food."

"Thank you." smiled Rita as she did the dishes. "I try."

Pidgina and Splinter quietly sat at a table in the corner playing chess.

"Its been a while since I played, no one here is ever as interested in the game as I am." said Pidgina happily.

"I usually play with an elderly blind man in Central Park, Andre." said Splinter, moving his piece.

"Oh how nice!" Pidgina then moved her piece. 

Mikey, Shelly, Leo, and Venus absorbed themselves in watching television.

Cori was lifting weights in her gym room, when Raph walked in.

Cori glanced over at him, rolled her eyes, and continued lifting her weights.

"Is this room yours?" asked Raph as he looked around.

"It might as well be; no one else really uses it." said Cori.

Raph walked over to Cori, and took a look at the weights she was lifting. He chuckled.

"What's so funny?" 

"Them weights you're liftin. Now I know you'll never be able to beat me." said Raph with a small smile on his face.

Cori glared at him for a moment, then walked off to another part of the gym with her weights.

Raph followed her over there. "What? No comeback? Earlier you seemed convinced you could fight, and beat me."

"I'm still sure that I could fight, and beat you." said Cori, then she dropped her weights. "But I don't feel like humiliating the crap out of you on the first day of meeting me." Then she walked away.

Raph watched her as she left.

"Oh yeah, and stop following me like some lost puppy dog." said Cori, then she left the gym.

Raph watched after her for a moment, and found that something about Cori intrigued him very much.

The next morning, after breakfast, everyone went back to hanging around the lair.

Leonardo and Venus went out to get their stuff from their temporary lair.

As they walked, Leo grabbed Venus' hand and pulled her closer to him, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. 

Venus giggled.

"Finally I can be with you without everyone around." said Leo as he put his arm around Venus.

"Why shouldn't everyone else be around?" asked Venus, somewhat coyly.

Leo leaned in closer to her and kissed her. "That's why."

Venus smiled back at him.

At the lair, Rita was at her computer looking at the screen intently. Donny walked over to her.

"Whatcha doin?" he asked.

Rita glanced over at him. "Oh, just trying to set up a sort of blueprint for how I want my new lab to look." she looked at it carefully. "Something about just isn't right."

Donny looked at it. "Hmm . . . might I make a suggestion?"

"Go right on ahead." said Rita.

"Maybe if you move the main computer to be by the 2nd lab station, you can have a circular space around the entire lab." 

"Hmm. . . " Rita changed the layout on the screen. "Eureka!"

Donny smiled.

"Thanks Donatello." said Rita with a smile.

"Please, call me Donny." 

Rita smiled. "Okay, Donny, thanks."

"No problem." 

Shelly made a huge bowl of popcorn topped with ketchup and mustard, then sat in front of the television where Raph and Mikey were. She stuffed a handful in her mouth.

"Want some?" she offered to the two.

"Cool!" said Mikey as he quickly dug in.

"Eh, I'll pass." said Raph.

Cori and Ashton were in the gym. Cori was lifting weights while Ashton ran on a treadmill.

"I've never seen anyone run that fast on that thing before." said Cori. "Its cos you're part cat isn't it?"

"Yep." said Ashton proudly as she ran. She then looked over at Cori. "You don't like Raph do you?"

Cori looked at her, somewhat surprised. "Why do you say that?"

"I dunno, I guess its cos you two almost got in a fight yesterday; I heard you two from across the room. And when Raph went in the gym, moments later you came out." 

"He's annoying." said Cori. "He seems to wanna fight or somethin, what gives?"

"Its Raph's way of seeing what you're made of; if you're tough enough for him." said Ashton. She got off the treadmill. "Raph's a really cool guy, he's like my best friend. You just gotta get used to how he is."

"Maybe." said Cori as she put down her weights.

Ashton and Cori left the gym.

"Ya know, you and Raph are more alike than you think." said Ashton.

"Heh, I doubt that." said Cori as she and Ashton walked over to where everyone was watching television.

Later on that day, Leonardo and Venus came back with the stuff from the other lair.

"You two sure were gone a long time." said Ashton. "You left this morning."

Venus blushed. "Has it been that long?"

"I guess we lost track of time." said Leo, as he put some of their stuff down in the lair.

"Doing _what_ is the question." said Mikey.

"Mikey, head, out of the gutter, now." said Leo.

Mikey chuckled.


	10. Something Amiss

****

The Turtles spent the next couple of weeks enjoying the company of their new friends, and it was turning out to be a pretty nice vacation.

One day, Rita was using the "eye in the sky" program that Donny helped her install on her computer. She came across something that had her puzzled.

Donny noticed her expression, and sliding on his swivel chair, slid away from the invention he was working on. "What's up Rita?"

Rita pointed at a spot on the screen. "See that area right there? There's an abandoned building there."

"Okay, so what's wrong with that?" asked Donny.

"Well, its supposed to be abandoned, but there's activity in it now, a whole lot of it." Rita then enlarged the picture on the screen with details listed below. "See? There's a whole bunch of people in there."

"Move over a sec." said Donny, gently moving Rita away from the computer.

Rita slid over in her chair, and Donny was right in front of the computer. He began clicking around on various features of the program. 

"Those aren't people." said Donny. "Look at their body temperature."

Rita looked at the temperature listed at the bottom of the screen. "Whoa, that's pretty hot for a body temperature; human or animal!" She then noticed Donny's more-serious-than-usual expression. "What's wrong Donny?"

"Those are dragons." said Donny.

"What? You mean those awful things you and your family told us about?" asked Rita in surprise.

"Exactly." said Donny.

"But I thought you said they lived in New York, what are they doing here?" asked Rita.

"I don't know." said Donny. "But this calls for investigation."

Ashton's ears perked up to the situation, and she looked very worried.

Outside of the lair, in another corridor that the L.A. Turtles had all for themselves, Raph and Cori were sparring.

"You're gonna have to do better than that." said Raph.

"I would if you would just stop moving!" said Cori.

"That's the key; keep moving so your enemy can't take you down." said Raph. Then he swiftly grabbed Cori, turned her around, and put her in a headlock. "Then make your move."

Cori leaned down a good ways, then flipped Raph over her, and onto his shell in such a way that she was on top of him. "I see what you mean." she grinned. Then she got up.

Raph looked at her in surprise.

Cori smirked. 

At the lair, Shelly had just come out of her room as Mikey entered the lair.

"Hellooo sexy." grinned Mikey.

Shelly giggled. "Like, hey Mikey."

"Mikey." said Donny as he walked by them. "Tell the others that we stepped out for a moment ok?"

"Oh ok." said Mikey as Ashton and Rita followed closely behind Donny. "Where should I say you went?"

"On an important mission." replied Donny as he, Ashton and Rita left the lair.

Mikey and Shelly looked puzzled.


	11. Enter the dragons

Rita led the way to where the building was. When they reached it, they all stood across the street from it, in the more desolated part of the city, and looked at it.

"Well, they're definitely in there. The lights are on all over the place." said Donny. "I need to figure out what they're doing in there."

Ashton looked at the building intently. "I can go over there and find out."

Donny and Rita looked at her quickly.

"What? Its not like I'm gonna walk up in there and be like, 'hey, I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to know what you all were doing in this building'. I'm gonna get into the building without anyone noticing, and spy on them for a little while."

"I don't know, I don't like that idea. It sounds extremely dangerous." said Rita.

"I agree, that sounds way too risky." said Donny.

"Well we sure as heck didn't come here for nothing.If you two don't wanna know what's goin on, that's fine for you. But I'm curious." said Ashton as she began walking over to the building.

"Remember, curiosity killed the cat." said Donny.

"But not the panther hybrid." said Ashton with a sly smile, and she kept on walking.

"She's more like Raph every day." sighed Donny heavily.

Rita nodded.

Ashton went over to the building, and from the back, climbed onto the top of it. Up there, she opened a hatch, and crawled into the ventilation system. Rats screeched around her, and Ashton hissed back at them. They all ran away. She then continued on.

After a while, Ashton was right above a warm room. She heard clanking armor, and suddenly fell still and listened.

"What news do you have?" asked the all-too-familiar voice of Dragon Lord.

"The plans are almost complete. We will begin execution of the plans by next week." said a dragon.

"Capital." said Dragon Lord. "And what of my assassin?"

"He just told me that he's found what he's looking for, but won't release any more details." said the dragon.

"Just like him." said Dragon Lord under his breath.

"Just like the sneaky snake. I knew we should've trained one of our own warriors to be the assassin majesty." said Wick.

"Silence!" ordered Dragon Lord. "None of my warriors, sad to say, could ever be as adept as the assassin."

Wick was no longer speaking.

"You may go now. Report back to me as soon as you have any more news, either about the plans, or from the assassin." said Dragon Lord.

"Yes sir." said the dragon, then he was heard walking out.

"Soon Wick, soon my army will be invincible. The very thing that created those mutant Turtles, will destroy them." said Dragon Lord gleefully.

Ashton was very confused. She was about to continue on in the vent, but soon heard the clicking sounds of the ventilation system that alerted her to the fact that the heat was being turned on. She then quickly turned around, and made her way back out of the vent, and back onto the roof. She then climbed down, and joined Donny and Rita across the street again.

"I told you I'd be fine." said Ashton.

"What did you find out?" asked Donny eagerly.

"Not much; I don't think so anyway." said Ashton. "Come on, let's go back home and tell everyone. I don't wanna have to explain this story more than once."

They all then went back to the lair.

Back at the lair, everyone was back, and Ashton relayed what she heard.

"It seems as if Dragon Lord is planning something." she said. "The dragon warrior he talked to said that 'the plans are almost complete, and execution of the plans will begin by next week.'"

"Ah man, there goes our vacation." said Mikey as he slouched back in his chair.

"What else did leatherhead say?" asked Raph.

"Well, he said something about an assassin. I don't know anything about that though. The dragon warrior just said that the assassin has found what he's looking for, but won't release any more details."

"This is like, really weird." said Shelly.

"Not to mention a bit frightening." said Rita.

"Oh! And get this." Ashton sat down on her chair. "Dragon Lord said that his army will soon be invincible. He said, and I quote him exactly, 'The very thing that created those mutant Turtles, will destroy them.' I don't have the foggiest idea of what he meant by that."

"Ok now that's just creepy. What could he mean by that?" asked Leo. He turned to Venus. "Do your scrolls say anything about any plans Dragon Lord might have?"

"Well, nothing else but the usual world domination." said Venus.

"No, this has nothing to do with scrolls or anything that Dragon Lord normally does." said Donny, who looked very thoughtful by now.

"What do you mean Donny?" asked Leo.

"Think about it. The very thing that created us, will destroy us. The ooze is what made us what we are now." said Donny. "It's the only thing I can think of really."

"But in a very scary way, it makes perfect sense." said Rita.

"Well everyone, I regret to tell you, but vacation is over." said Splinter.

"Oh my." said Pidgina thoughtfully.


	12. Uncertainty

The next day, Rita carefully monitored any activity going on in and around the building. 

Donny looked at the screen. "Everything's quiet."

"For now." said Rita. 

"Listen Rita, they aren't gonna do anything in the daytime. They can't. They need to conceal themselves in darkness like we do." said Donny.

Rita sighed heavily and turned away from the computer. "I guess you're right. Its just that, well, I've never dealt with something like this before. You all told me what these dragons are like; I'm scared half out of my wits now."

Donny sat in front of her and held her hand. "Don't be, its gonna be okay." he said, looking into her eyes. "We've dealt with them before, and we'll do it again. Don't worry yourself."

Rita looked into Donny's eyes; they were so deep and compassionate, she found herself feeling at ease as Donny held her hand. "Okay, I'll calm down."

"Good." smiled Donny. Then he stood up and helped Rita up. "Now let's go and continue setting up your lab."

"Okay." 

Rita and Donny picked up some things needed for the lab, and headed over to where Rita's lab was to be set up.

Leo looked over at Venus who sat meditating. She was determined to find out what the dragons were planning; it gave her such an uneasy feeling not to know. 

Venus then opened her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. "Its no use, I can't get through."

"Maybe you should relax a while; you've been at it for a good while." said Leo.

"I know. I just don't want to let anything happen. I promised Chung I . . . ."

Leo held Venus as it looked like she was about to cry. "Don't cry Mei, you just need some rest, then you can try again later. I know you can do it."

Venus leaned into Leo. "Thank you." she said softly. "I hope I can."

Splinter came and sat down on the couch in the den where Pidgina spent a lot of time reading. He sighed as he sat down.

Pidgina looked up from her book. "Is something the matter?"

Splinter glanced over at her. "This problem with Dragon Lord is not something I expected to happen at all. If Donatello is right about his theory with the ooze, we are in great danger."

Pidgina looked worried. "Oh dear me, I hate danger." she looked somewhat down for a moment. "If anything happens I know I won't make it, I'm no young birdy anymore. Look, feathers are coming out and everything." she said some feathers fell from her wing. "And if I don't make it, who will take care of Rita, and Corina, and Shelly? They may be smart, but they don't know everything about life yet. Who will protect them?"

"I have similar worries about my sons, and my daughters. Leonardo is very well skilled in ninjitsu, as are the others, but their young recklessness causes things to happen sometimes. Who will scold Raphael for riding his loud motorcycle? Who will break up the arguments? Who will comfort young Ashton and teach her how to cope with life when she feels so alienated from everyone else?" Splinter then looked down. "So much to teach them, so little time."

Pidgina sighed. "We do what we can Splinter." she said patting his hand. "And then, we hope for the best."

Splinter sighed and nodded in agreement. "Do what we can." he repeated quietly.

Raph and Cori walked down a sewer corridor on their way to the sparring area.

"You've been doin good these past few times, I'll admit. But this time, you're goin down." said Raph.

"Stop talkin that cheap crap Raph; you've been saying that for the past couple of weeks. Get off yourself." said Cori.

As they walked along, they saw Ashton coming from the opposite direction. "Hey you two." she said, looking like she was holding back laughter.

"Hey Ash, what's the smile about?" asked Raph.

"Kodak moment up ahead." said Ashton, pointing back to where she came from. She then kept on walking.

Raph and Cori looked at each other, then shrugged. As they walked on, they realized what Ashton was talking about. Mikey and Shelly stood in the middle of the corridor, lips pressed against each other's.

Raph and Cori looked surprised, and somewhat amused.

"I don't think they even know we're here." said Raph.

"We'll have to fix that won't we?" grinned Cori. "Wooooo, yeah!! Go Shellster!"

Mikey and Shelly were startled out of their kiss, and turned to the two.

Raph and Cori burst out laughing.

Mikey smiled sheepishly. Shelly blushed. 

"H, how long were you two there?" asked Mikey.

"Long enough." laughed Raph.

"Ashton saw you too." said Cori.

"Oh like, maybe we should go back to the lair, y'know?" suggested Shelly.

"Yeah, good idea." said Mikey. Then he took Shelly's hand, and the two walked back to the lair.

Raph and Cori's laughter died down. As they stood up straight again, they found themselves facing each other. They stared at each other for a long time before Raph turned away. "Come on, we should keep going." he said, somewhat uncomfortably.

"Yeah, good idea." said Cori as she followed him.


	13. Meeting the Assassin

Later on that night, everyone stayed in, afraid that dragons might catch them off-guard.

Donny and Rita had come back to the lair for dinner, then went back to the lab to continue setting it up.

"Man, if I had a set-up like this at home, the possibilities for my inventions would be endless." said Donny, marveling at Rita's laboratory space.

Rita smiled. "I can imagine. It's a shame all you could find was an abandoned train station to live in. We had to find various places because we all wanted our own little place in the sewer. Shelly is an exception; all she wanted was a nice kitchen with a full fridge, and she's fine."

"Sounds like Mikey." Donny laughed.

Rita laughed.

After a little while, they had set up the furniture. 

"Well, all we need now is the lab equipment." said Rita.

"Yep." said Donny. 

Back at the lair, Ashton was getting restless.

"I need to climb." she whined.

"Go find a tree or something then." said Leo impatiently as something really interesting happened on TV.

Ashton looked around, and noticed that everyone was rather preoccupied. She sighed heavily, then left the lair. She walked down the passageways, and suddenly felt very lonely. These past few days, bonds had begun to be formed between her family, and the new Turtles, and she was the odd one out. Donny could hang out with Rita, Leo and Venus were together a lot, Mikey and Shelly spent a lot of time together, Splinter could talk to Pidgina about anything . . . and then there was Raph, her best buddy. He'd been hanging around Cori; she knew he liked her. And even though she was happy for him, a part of her wished that Raph had never met Cori, and that they could hang out again like they always used to.

Ashton found a manhole opening, and left the sewers, going to the park. She soon found a nice tree, shooed the scorpions away from her, and relaxed on a branch. The cool breeze swept through the trees, making them rustle ever so gently on this summer night. She remembered when Raph used to sit right under the tree she was in, and they'd talk into the night. Suddenly, it all seemed like she was back in Brazil, no one to talk to, no friends at all.

As she relaxed on the branch, the next breeze bought a new scent with it. Ashton's nose twitched at the strange scent. She then heard something in the tree that was next to her. Her ears twitched as the unnatural movement in the next tree over alerted her to the fact that the breeze wasn't what was affecting it.

She sat up quickly, and climbed higher into her tree, then peered out of it to the next tree. It was all silent, but a distinct disturbance lingered in the air that tickled her skin and captured her attention.

Suddenly, movement in the tree was sudden, and then stopped. Ashton could feel her heart beat double time, and cold chills ran up and down her spine. She hissed threateningly to warn away whatever it was that was there. Feeling a little more than vulnerable being all alone, she jumped out of the tree, and began making her way over to the manhole, when a feeling stopped her. She knew she was being followed, and going into the manhole would inevitably lead this stranger to the Turtles.

She stood in the middle of the alleyway next to the park, unsure of what her next move would be. And just as quickly as the feeling of being alone came on, it went away; there was a new presence. Suddenly, Ashton spun around and came face to face with the same young man she saw when coming back from Dunkin Donuts that morning. The young man grinned.

"You!" Ashton said.

The young man continued grinning, baring the fangs he had. "Yeah, me."

"Who are you? Why do I keep seeing you?" Ashton asked, trying to push aside the fear that built up within her.

"As for your first question, my name is Schiam, but you can just call me, the assassin." he said quite matter-of-factly.

Ashton was shocked; she finally met the assassin. "So you're the assassin. Who are you going to assassinate?"

"It's the answer to your second question, Ashton." Schiam's grin faded. "I'm here to assassinate, you."

Ashton felt her heart jump into her throat, and her blood run cold.

"Dragon Lord is tired of you being in the way. I'm from a very poor dimension, and he's paying me highly to dispose of you."

"What are you? Why do you have fangs?"

"What slithers through trees in the Amazon and poisons its victims with a single bite?" He flicked out a forked tongue. "A snake, of course."

"I hate snakes. I hated them when I lived in the rain forest, and I hate them now." Ashton said bitterly.

"I never liked cats either." said Schiam as his eyes took on an eerie red glow.

Ashton's nails slowly extended. "I've never lost a fight to a snake yet, and I'm not going to start now."

Schiam grinned evilly.

Ashton hissed as Schiam began stepping closer to her. As she reached out to scratch him, he disappeared. "Huh?" she asked with a puzzled look on her face. Suddenly, she was roughly thrown down from behind. As she turned to get up, Schiam pinned her down with his foot.

Ashton slashed at his leg, and he moved it quickly.

Schiam's quick body moved away from Ashton's attacks each time, preventing Ashton from getting very many hits in. 

After a while, Ashton was heated, angry, and frustrated. She looked at Schiam with disgust, who only met her look with that of pure glee.

"I'm going to get going now."

"Leaving already huh? Scared?"

Schiam chuckled. "Hardly the case. I just thought I'd test out to see what you're made of before I move in for the real kill. I like to play with my victims before I annihilate them." he grinned.

Ashton's nails slowly retracted as she caught her breath. 

"You'll be seeing me again young one. You can count on it." Schiam then disappeared off.

Ashton watched him leave, then quickly ran into the manhole, closed it behind her, and ran back to the lair.


	14. Reporting Back

When Ashton reached the lair, she noticed that everyone was there. She stopped, winded and breathless, near the entrance.

"What's up Ash?" asked Mikey, noticing Ashton's breathless stance.

Ashton took a deep breath. "You wouldn't believe, who, I just met up with." she said as she caught her breath.

"Who?" asked Leo, turning to Ashton.

Ashton came away from the entrance and sat down on the couch. "I just met, the assassin." 

She now had everyone's attention.

"You met up, with the assassin?" asked Donny in amazement.

Ashton nodded. "That's what I said. And what's more interesting, it's not the first time I met up with him either."

"How so?" asked Venus.

"Well, remember when we first got to L.A., and you all sent me out to get breakfast? Well, after I did, I was leaving the Dunkin Donuts, and I saw this guy standing against the wall, looking at me. It was weird that of all the people in the crowd, he looked at me. What was even weirder, is that after a while, he started smiling at me. It wasn't any normal smile either, he has fangs!"

"Wow, I am like, officially creeped out." said Shelly, looking a bit worried.

"Wait a minute, fangs? What is he?" asked Leo.

"I'm getting to that." said Ashton. "So I was just minding my own business chilling up in a tree in the park . . ."

"You went out by yourself?! Knowing that Dragon Lord is out here, how can you . . . . "

"Can it Leo." said Raph. Then he turned back to Ashton. "Go on."

"Thanks." said Ashton. "Anyways, I was in the tree when I noticed I wasn't alone anymore. Something moved in the tree next to me, so I got down. I soon met up with that guy; the assassin. His name is Schiam, and he's some snake creature from a different dimension."

"What is he doing here?" asked Splinter.

"He's here to assassinate, me." said Ashton.

Rita gasped.

"He says Dragon Lord is paying him to get rid of me; that I'm in Dragon Lord's way." said Ashton.

"That's deep man." said Mikey.

"The question is, why does Dragon Lord want you out of the way, especially now?" asked Donny thoughtfully.

"I think we better keep a closer watch on Dragon Lord's activities." said Leo.

"I agree. Whatever Dragon Lord is planning, it must be something special for him to hire an assassin specifically to get Ashton out of the way." said Splinter.

"Why would he want to get Ashton out of the way, and not you all? I mean, not tryin to sound mean like I want him to go after y'all, but why target Ashton specifically?" asked Corina.

"Because his warriors can't beat her. She's too quick for them." said Raph.

Donny looked thoughtful, then got up and went over to the computer.

"Seems like we oughta watch you more carefully kiddo." said Mikey.

"I don't need to be watched; I need to be trained to fight this guy." said Ashton as she stood up. "Can I talk to you for a moment, Master?"

"Yes, Ashton. Come." said Master Splinter as he and Ashton walked out of the living room to the den.

Inside, they both sat down.

"What is on your mind my child?" asked Master Splinter.

"This assassin guy, Schiam; he's very quick, quicker than me. I'm afraid that he'll be able to beat me. My skills aren't as finely tuned as his. I want you to train me to combat him." said Ashton.

"Wouldn't you rather learn to evade him?" asked Splinter.

"I'll learn anything I can to keep from getting beat by him." said Ashton. "Dragon Lord's obviously planning something that requires me to be out of the way. If I'm gone, who knows what he's got planned for you all. I can't allow anything bad to happen."

Splinter nodded. "Very well Ashton; I will help you."

Ashton smiled. "I knew I could count on you Master Splinter." she said, giving him a quick hug.

Splinter smiled. "Anytime my child, anytime."


	15. Tense Times

The next day, Donny spent the day making certain things to observe and record any information about Dragon Lord's plans. Rita helped him out with the gadgets.

Leo came by the lab and looked at some of the gadgets.

"Geez Donny, are you sure we need all of these things just for observing the dragons?" asked Leo as he perused the objects.

"Don't touch that!" said Rita as she pushed his hand away from a certain object. "Its refragmenting, you could disturb the process." she said, gently setting the object down.

Leo looked at her funny. "I'll let you two get back to your work." he then began leaving. "Remember Donny, we gotta leave when it gets dark; I hope you're done with that, stuff, by then."

"Uh huh." said Donny as he attached something to an object.

In a room designated as the dojo, Master Splinter was training Ashton. 

Ashton let out a frustrated growl. "I can't do it!" she complained.

"You must concentrate harder. Push aside your anger, your fear, your very emotions. You must become focused." coached Splinter. "Remember how I taught you to push aside the anger you felt inside. Push it aside, harder. Concentrate on your goal, not the reason for your goal."

Ashton took a deep breath, and let it out. She then stood poised and ready. "Okay, let's try this again."

Splinter then charged at her with his stick spinning in various unpredictable directions.

Ashton watched it carefully. She hit it every time it changed direction, and as soon as it got too close, she leaped out of the way, and landed behind Splinter. She positioned her hands to push him down, but didn't, as this was only practice.

Splinter turned around and nodded. "Very good."

Ashton took a deep breath and let it out with a small smile on her face.

Later on that evening, Donny and Leo prepared to leave the lair to go spying on Dragon Lord.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, you can't just place some cameras in some strategic locations and that's it?" asked Rita as she watched them get themselves ready.

Leo secured his katanna in his belt. "If we left cameras all over the place they'd eventually find them and we'd be back to square one."

"Besides," said Donny as he picked up a small machine. "It gives us a chance to check out the layout of D.L.'s structure." 

"I still don't like the idea." said Rita as she set a certain device. Then she sighed heavily and gave it to Donny. "But I guess its what you have to do."

Donny took the device from Rita and looked at it. "Nice communicator you rigged." 

"Thanks." Rita smiled half-heartedly.

"Be careful." Venus said worriedly.

Leo looked over at her and nodded with a smile.

Venus smiled somewhat nervously.

"Look out for that snake guy." said Ashton.

"I'll be keeping in contact with you over the communicator, and watching you with the 'eye-in-the-sky'. I'll let you know if anything awry pops up that you need to know about." said Rita.

"Great." said Donny.

"Seems like we're all set. Let's go." said Leo.

Donny and Leo, with communicators and another small device, left the lair.

Rita quickly went to computer.

Ashton watched them leave, then went and joined Rita by the computer.

Raph, Mikey, Shelly, and Cori sat around, waiting to see if anything happened.

Outside of the lair, Donny and Leo soon reached the Dragon Lord's fortress and crept inside.

"Well one thing we've got going for us, it's a lot less complex than his fortress in New York." said Leo.

"True." said Donny. Then he opened a vent. "Come on."

The two then crawled into the ventilation system and made their way about the structure, listening to various conversations throughout the fortress.

Later on, Donny and Leo came back, seemingly confused.

"What did you find out?" asked Rita.

"I don't know really." said Leo as he sat down on the couch.

"Bits and pieces of a puzzle is more like it." said Donny. 

"They're planning on invading some sort of building on the outskirts of L.A. When? We don't know. Why? We don't know. We just know the 'how' right now." said Leo.

"Anything about Schiam?" asked Ashton.

"Nothing more than Dragon Lord finds him annoying." said Donny.

"Hmm." Ashton then walked off.

"I saved you both some food from dinner." said Rita. "It's still on the stove if you want."

"Thanks Rita." said Donny.

"No prob." 

Pidgina came out of her room, some feathers falling from her. "You're back! My goodness I thought you'd never return."

"Pidgina, you're like, losing feathers." said Shelly.

Pidgina looked down. "Good heavens! I'm molting!"

"But its not even the season for that." said Rita.

"This stress, oh! I can't take it." said Pidgina. "I need some tea. Splinter, do you want some tea?"

"Yes please." said Splinter.

"Yes, tea, tea will do it." said Pidgina as she made her way to the kitchen.

Donny and Leo went to eat dinner.

Mikey and Raph sat in the front of the television.

"I'm like, going to bed. G'night all." said Shelly.

"Night cutie." said Mikey.

Shelly smiled and winked at Mikey, then went into her room.

"You two are weird ya know that?" said Cori.

Raph and Mikey turned to her.

"You're sittin here watchin the tube when you're worst enemies are out there plannin somethin big." said Cori.

"Well its not like we can do anything. We've gotta wait and see." said Mikey.

"Or we could go out and kick their collective tushes before they get any further in their plans." said Raph.

Cori gave him a look. "I think I like Mikey's plan betta." She then got up. "I'm goin to my room. Come get ur weapon thingy before you get to bed, otherwise I might throw 'em away."

"You won't if you know what's good for ya." said Raph.

"Yeah, uh huh, whateva." 

"What's your sai doing in Cori's room?" asked Mikey.

Raph mumbled something incoherently.

"What?"

"She took 'em durin sparring today, now watch TV." said Raph.

Mikey decided not to pry deeper into what happened, so he turned his attention back to the television.


	16. Late Night Sparring: Raph and Cori

Later on that night, Cori sat thoughtfully in her room as Raph came in briefly to get his sai.

"Raph?"

Raph looked towards Cori just before he exited the room. "Yeah?"

Cori looked up at him. "Why do we spar?"

Raph turned completely towards her. "What?"

"Why do we spar? Why are we always travelin that distance everyday, just to spar?"

Raph looked at her funny. "I don't know, its just what we do."

"If I understand its origin correctly, sparring is meant to basically practice for real fights that may come up."

"So that's what we're doin. We gotta fight them dragons one day soon, so sparring is just a practice."

"But the dragons weren't a concern in the beginning; we ain't even know they were around." Cori shook her head. "No, we spar for a different reason."

Raph looked slightly uncomfortable. "You need sleep." he said curtly. "I'm goin out."

Cori followed him out of her room, and stopped him by standing directly in front of him. "Why did we start sparring in the first place? Tell me that."

"Because we wanted to outdo each other. I knew I could beat you, you thought you could beat me."

"Exactly, and neither of us ever wins, but we still keep going back instead of callin it even."

"I never call it even." Raph said stubbornly. "It ain't over 'til I win."

"Well then, let's go. Let's go spar until one of us wins." said Cori.

Raph looked at her intently; he could tell she had something else on her mind besides sparring, but didn't know what. His curiousity overwhelmed him. "Fine, let's go. But don't say I didn't warn ya."

Cori turned away from him without another word, and they went to spar.

They stood in their respective spots before beginning what would be the most intense sparring match they'd ever have.

Raph made the first move, and the match began. As Raph fought, he thought about all that Cori said. Why did they spar? Why was it a daily ritual? Why was it so important?

Bang! Raph was knocked to the floor by a sidekick from Cori. Raph flipped over and stood up quickly. He then charged at Cori, catching her in a headlock. Cori flipped him over, and he landed on his shell. Then Raph, still holding onto Cori, rolled her over on the floor so that she couldn't get up. Getting nowhere in holding each other down, they sprang up again to continue.

They were both sweating this time, proof that this was one of the most intense sparring matches. They stared at each other intently, watching every move. Their eyes met frequently, and then intensity made their concentration deeper.

Just then, everything stopped as Raph made what would be his final charge at Cori. He knocked her down swiftly, tripping her behind the knees with one leg. He then pinned her down to the floor.

Breathing hard and sweating, they looked into each other's eyes.

"I win." Raph finally said. Then he stood up, and pulled Cori up with him.

Cori stood up and brushed herself off, but was soon grabbed by Raph. He spun her around so that they faced each other, and pulled her closer to him. He then leaned in and kissed her.

Cori was startled for a moment, but soon got into it.

Raph pulled back for a moment to look at her.

"Sparring, over." said Cori.

Raph smirked, then leaned in and kissed her again.


	17. Meditating

The next morning, everyone sat down for breakfast. Corina and Raph exchanged a few fond looks across the table, which didn't go unnoticed by Venus who grinned to herself.

Over the next couple of weeks, Donny and Leo went every night to spy on Dragon Lord's plans. They found out mainly information on where the dragons were going, and how they planned to invade the building, but never why the dragons were going through so much trouble to invade an old laboratory.

One day, Venus sat in her room, meditating, trying to figure out what Dragon Lord was planning. Every time she felt she was getting close, she'd suddenly lose the concentration, and be right back to square one.

"Ugh!" she exclaimed after another failed attempt.

Leo heard her exclamation, and peered into Venus' room. "Hey Mei, are you okay?"

Venus looked up at him for a moment, then shook her head. "I can't do it."

Leo came in and sat by her. "What can't you do?"

"Find out what's going on at Dragon Lord's fortress. I'm trying to get through by entering Dragon Lord's mind, seeing what he sees, and hearing his thoughts. Just when I think I almost got it, I lose the connection." she lowered her head and sighed. "It wouldn't of been like this if Chung I were here . . ."

Leo looked at her compassionately. "Aw Mei, I know you miss Chung I. But if he were here, I bet he'd be saying the same thing I'm about to say to you." he gently lifted her head with his hand. "You can do it; I know you can."

Venus looked at him and sighed. "But I try so hard."

"Remember what Chung I taught you. I know you can do it." said Leo. "Come on try again, while I'm here."

Venus looked at him for a moment, then sighed deeply. "Okay, I'll try, again." She then sighed deeply once more, closed her eyes, and began her meditation. Brief images flashed in her mind, she tried to hold onto them, but the connection slipped sometimes.

Leo watched Venus' serious, concentrating expression. Her hands looked as if they were grasping for the connection, to hold onto it. Without thinking, Leo reached out and held her hands.

Just then, a slight greenish-blue glow came over both of them.

Leo closed his eyes, and began to see what Venus saw.

Venus could feel herself holding onto the connection better, and held onto Leo's hands. Her mind's eye traveled down many passageways until she found herself looking around the Dragon Lord's fortress. Everything was quiet. She saw dragons still asleep in their beds, and large unopened wooden crates lying around. She then saw Dragon Lord's room, and his bed. Then everything went blank, as if Dragon Lord closed his eyes.

Venus slowly let go of the connection, and opened her eyes. She looked in front of her to see Leo open his eyes as well.

Leo looked a little startled for a moment, then looked at Venus.

Venus smiled widely.

"You did it." Leo smiled back.

"No, we did it." said Venus, gently caressing Leo's hands.

Leo smiled back at her.

Later on that night, Donny was getting ready to go on another spying mission.

"You ready to go yet Leo?" asked Donny.

"I can't go tonight." said Leo.

Donny turned to him with a puzzled look on his face. "What?"

"I'm not going tonight. I have to help Venus." said Leo.

"Can't you do it when we come back? I can't go out there alone." said Donny.

"By helping Venus we could finally find out the 'why' in this whole mystery. We'd finally find out why Dragon Lord is going through all this trouble." 

"But I'm not done mapping out D.L.'s LA fortress." said Donny.

"Well you can still go; I just can't go with you."

"So who am I supposed to take with me?" asked Donny.

"Take Raph." said Leo.

Donny gave him a look.

"Uhhh, I take that back."

"I'll go." said Rita.

No one heard her.

"There must be someone who can go." said Leo. "How about Mikey??"

"Nah, he'll be too loud." said Donny.

Rita cleared her throat loudly. 

Donny and Leo turned to her.

"I can go." Rita said.

"Uhhh, gee Rita, I don't know. Are you sure you're up for something like this?" asked Leo.

"Sure, why not? All I have to do is observe quietly right?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it." said Donny.

"I still don't know. I mean, is she really ready to handle the weight and stealth required of the mission?"

Donny looked at Rita for a moment, then turned back to Leo. "She'll do fine."

Rita smiled.

Leo looked at her for a moment, then sighed. "All right, but be careful."

"We know." said Donny and Rita.

"Shelly, you remember how to watch the 'eye-in-the sky', right?" asked Rita.

"Uh huh." said Shelly, not looking too sure.

Rita looked at her skeptically.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure she doesn't mess it up." said Ashton.

"Thanks." smiled Rita.

Donny and Rita then picked up a couple of things, then left.

"I sure hope they'll be all right." said Leo.

"Chill dude, they're the brainy observing type; they'll be fine." said Mikey.

Leo looked at the entrance for a little while, then went to Venus' room.


	18. Spying:Fighting

Donny and Rita crept into Dragon Lord's fortress, got into the ventilation system, and crawled through to the less-known areas of the building.

"This place is sorta creepy." said Rita, looking around.

"You think this is creepy, you should see the nether areas of his lair at home; scary." said Donny.

Rita looked down out of one of the ventilation grates, then crawled closer to Donny.

They got into a rather desolate area of the building, and took some quick pictures of the area and entered information about it into their small computers.

Back at the lair, Venus and Leo sat in Venus' room, facing each other, eyes closed, holding hands as they meditated.

They saw two dragons standing in front of Dragon Lord (who's eyes they were looking through), as Dragon Lord spoke to them.

"You are to sharpen those swords, especially the jagged ones. No one will stand in the way of our goal." he then turned to Dr. Quease, who stood in the corner of the room. "You're sure that they will be able to slice through shell?"

Dr. Quease nodded reluctantly. He didn't want his subjects dead when they got to him.

"Capital." said Dragon Lord.

Venus and Leo squeezed each other's hands momentarily, upset at the sound of a sword that could, "slice through shell."

Donny and Rita had spent a good while's out, taking in all the information they could. They began heading back to the lair, but first, they stopped a moment on top of an abandoned building.

"Why are we stopping here?" asked Rita.

"I need to take down some information about the surrounding area." said Donny as he began typing something into the small computer he had.

Rita watched him for a moment, then walked off to the edge of the building, and peered over the side, looking down. 

Donny had finished doing whatever typing he was doing, and walked over to Rita. "What's so interesting down there?"

Rita looked up at him slightly startled. "Oh, nothing much. Just the city. The lights look so beautiful at night."

Donny looked down. "Yeah, it is kinda nice. You should see Times Square at night. I don't think there's anything like it in the whole world."

Rita looked over at him. "Its that pretty?"

Donny looked over at her, and smiled fondly as he looked into her eyes. "Beautiful." he said.

Rita shyly smiled back.

Donny stepped up a little closer to her, leaned in and kissed her.

Back at the lair, Shelly and Ashton watched the computer intently.

"Why are they like, standing so close?" asked Shelly.

Ashton chuckled. "Do you really have to ask?"

Shelly thought for a moment. "Ohhh . ."

Just then, Ashton's smile faded as she looked at the screen.

Shelly caught her expression. "What's the like, matter Ashton?"  
Ashton didn't respond, she just ran out of there in a flash.

"Whoa, where's the fire?" asked Raph as he saw her run out.

"I dunno, she just like, was looking at the screen and suddenly like, jetted outta here."

Raph went over to the computer. He looked at the screen and noticed a figure that disappeared and reappeared off and on the screen. It was almost as if it was too quick for the computer to keep track of. "Who's _that_ guy?"

In her room, Venus' energy was being drained from the heavy concentration.

Splinter walked in just as Venus collapsed.

Leo fell backwards for a moment, breathing hard. "Man, I didn't know meditating could take so much outta ya."

Splinter walked over to Venus, and helped her sit up. "Venus, are you all right?" he asked concernedly.

Venus weakly looked over at him. "Dragon Lord . . . I know . . . what he is planning."

"And its pretty darn bad." added Leo.

Splinter looked worried.

Ashton dashed out the lair, out of the manhole, and up the street.

On top of the building, a shadow quickly flashed past Donny and Rita.

They didn't notice it as they were too involved with each other.

The loud CRASH! of a garbage can being thrown off of the building startled them out of their kiss.

The two Turtles looked around. 

"What was _that_?" asked Donny.

"I don't know, but I didn't like the sound of it." said Rita, holding onto Donny's arm.

A cold chill ran up and down their backs as something moved in the shadows.

Just then, Schiam stepped out of the shadows with a grin.

Donny and Rita didn't know what to do.

"Boo." said Schiam.

Suddenly, a blur whizzed past them all, knocking Schiam down. As he stood up, his cheek felt wet. He touched it, and found blood, coming from five distinct scratches on his cheek.

Donny and Rita looked to the side and noticed Ashton, eyes angrily narrowed to slits, and claws out, walking towards Schiam.

"Leave, them, alone." she hissed angrily.

Schiam grinned. "The panther child. How nice to see you again." 

"Donny, Rita, run." said Ashton.

They didn't need to be told twice, and quickly began running to the fire escape.

"Don't you go near them." said Ashton.

"Why would I?" said Schiam. Then his grin faded away. "All I really want is you."

Schiam tried to knock Ashton off of the building, but she got hold of a light pole, and slid all the way down, and began running off.

"Not so fast, kitty." Schiam then slid down the pole, and began chasing Ashton.

Schiam stood directly in Ashton's path. 

Ashton stood still and watched Schiam carefully.

"Scared stiff?"

"Hardly the case, snake man."

Schiam came at Ashton, but she jumped out his way, and as she crossed his path, gave him matching scratches on the other side of his face.

Schiam felt his face momentarily. "I see you've been practicing."

"You have no idea." 

"So have I." Schiam then came quickly at her, but rapidly changed direction as he came closer to her, causing Ashton to miss him completely.

As Ashton ran to a tree for a certain move she was planning to use, she didn't know Schiam was in the tree. He appeared from behind the trunk of the tree just as Ashton was directly on it, and with great force, smacked her away from it.

The force caused Ashton to fly backwards, and roughly hit a brick wall. 

"Aah!!" she exclaimed, and fell to her hands and knees in pain.

"And that's just the tip of the iceberg." said Schiam, and he began lifting her up by her neck.

Ashton coughed as she began choking. She struggled to get free from Schiam's powerful grasp.

Schiam chuckled. "I knew this would be easy. After I've killed you, then Dragon Lord can begin his reign, starting with annihilating your shell-backed friends."

Ashton felt a burning anger rise up within her. "No!" she managed to say. She extended the claws on her toes that she hardly used, and dug into Schiam's legs with them.

"#%&@!!" Schiam exclaimed, letting go of Ashton, and throwing her to the ground. 

Ashton slowly got up, coughing and trying to catch her breath.

Blood trickled from Schiam's legs, onto the hard pavement. He held his legs in pain, then glared at Ashton. 

"We're not through, cat." he said, then quickly disappeared off into the night.

Ashton looked around, and listened carefully to her surroundings. He was gone. She then turned back to the alleyway where the manhole that was mainly used was, and weakly went over to it. 


	19. Uncovering Dragon Lord's Plans

Ashton slowly staggered into the sewers, and collapsed as she entered the lair. Her back was extremely sore, and her neck was throbbing with pain.

"Oh dear me!" said Pidgina.

Raph and Mikey rushed over and helped her up.

"What happened out there?" asked Mikey as he and Raph laid Ashton down on the couch.

" I don't know. The last thing I remember was meeting up with that assassin guy Ashton was talking about." said Rita.

"You saw him?" asked Leo.

"Yep, and believe me, he's scary looking." said Donny. 

"She scratched him, told us to run, so I guess they had a pretty brutal fight." said Rita.

"And she took a thrashin." said Mikey.

Ashton slowly sat up, and winced in pain.

"Lay down, rest." said Splinter. "You have had quite a battle."

"But I didn't lose." said Ashton. She smiled a little. "I gave 'im heck."

Raph smirked. "Thatta girl Ash." 

"What happened to you?" asked Donny.

"I was thrown up against a brick wall, nearly strangled to death, and thrown to the ground." 

"Like, whoa." said Shelly.

"Yeah." Ashton smirked. "And I thought falling out of a tree in the rainforest was bad."

"Well, let me get you some pain killers, you just lay here and rest." said Rita.

Ashton settled down on the couch.

Later on in the day, Venus had woken up from her weakened state.

Her solemn expression as she entered the living room was all it took to get everyone's attention.

"What's the matter Venus?" asked Mikey.

"I fear I have bad news." said Venus.

Leo came out of her room, looking just as distraught. "Very bad news."

"What? What?" Shelly asked impatiently, and nervously.

"We know what Dragon Lord is planning." said Venus.

Master Splinter took a deep breath. "Go on."

Leo sighed deeply as he and Venus exchanged looks. Then they began telling what they've heard.

"Awful! Simply awful!" exclaimed Pidgina after the explanation was done.

"How did they find a remote laboratory that still manufactures the ooze? Better yet, _why_ is it still being manufactured?!" asked an extremely puzzled Donny.

"We don't know." said Venus.

"This ain't good man. They drink that stuff, they'll be almost as tough as me!" said Raph.

Cori hit him upside the head. "Tell your ego to take a hike huh?"

Raph just looked at her as he rubbed the back of his head. 

"Those dragons will be tougher than all of us put together!" said Mikey.

"That like, really sucks." said Shelly. "Ohmygosh, they're gonna like, eat us! Euww! That's sooo scary."

"So let me get this straight." said Rita, thinking very hard. "The dragons have found an old laboratory where a former T.G.R.I. scientist is still manufacturing the same ooze that transformed us all. Am I correct so far?"

Venus nodded.

"Okay, so, they plan on going to this laboratory, taking over it, ingesting the ooze while forcing the scientist to continue making more, and conquering all who stand in their way of world domination."

"That's pretty much the plan." said Leo.

"So where does this Schiam guy come in?" asked Ashton, who was feeling a bit better by now.

"Well, since you're the most agile, and fight much differently, and often stronger than the dragons do; you'd get in the way. You'd get in the way of the invasion of the laboratory as well." said Venus.

"Ah gee, great." Ashton sighed. "I shoulda stayed in Brazil." she mumbled as she laid back on the couch, still woozy from the pain killers.

Everyone sat around, nervous and confused.

Splinter took a look at everyone. "Why are you all just sitting there on your shells?" 

Everyone looked up at him.

"Make a plan." said Splinter. "We have never let the Dragon Lord defeat us before, and we are not going to start now."

"Master's right. We can't give up without a fight." said Ashton. "I mean, I've been knocked against brick walls and nearly strangled to death, but I'm still ready to go at it all over again."

Raph nodded. "I think we all need to take Ash's attitude. Dragon Lord ain't done nothin yet except hire this assassin guy, and that guy ain't after us. We can still go out there and take care of business."

Rita smiled knowingly. "And I think I have some great ideas."


	20. Making Plans

Rita gathered everyone in her new laboratory where she and Donny set up a simple, but detailed presentation on what the plans would be.

"Okay everyone, here's what Donny and I came up with." said Rita as she displayed a large sheet on the board.

"Do we like, have to take notes?" asked Shelly.

"No Shel, its not school." said Rita.

"Oh ok like, cool."

"Anyway, as I was saying these are the proposed plans." said Rita. She pointed at the board with a stick. "Dragon Lord is going after this laboratory, to get the ooze. We have to stop him from doing this, and the best way is, to not have any ooze waiting there for him."

"Come again?" asked a slightly confused Mikey.

"We have to destroy the ooze." said Donny. "On the first mission, we sneak into the lab, map out the place to a certain extent, especially where ooze ingredients, and holding areas are."

"Then on our second mission, we single in on the areas with the most ooze, destroying it with explosives. Then, we blow up any ingredients and other holding areas we can find." said Rita.

"What about that scientist?" asked Cori.

"Well, since he's technically not supposed to be making this ooze, the government would love to get their hands on him." said Donny.

"And we're supposed to get the government to him by . . ."

"Good point Leo." said Rita. "We just call the police and tell them where they can find a criminal. I'll rig a cell phone we can use or something."

"Good ideas." said Ashton. "But I have a question."

"Okay." said Rita.

"What are we gonna do about Schiam?" asked Ashton.

"That's easy." said Master Splinter.

Ashton turned to him. "Train harder."

Ashton sighed deeply.

"Well, if there aren't any more questions, we've gotta get to work finishing these mapping machines." said Donny as Rita put away the presentation materials.

"So what do we do now?" asked Venus.

"Well, while Rita and I tune up the mapping machines, the rest of you can train, and prepare weapons." said Donny.

"Since when did you start calling the shots?" asked Leo.

Donny looked at him.

"Oh come off your high horse Leo. We're a team, whoever has the know-how can call the shots. And Donny's no exception." said Rita.

"Yeah, you don't always have to be the 'Fearless Leader'." said Raph.

"Raph, you know I hate that nickname." growled Leo.

"I know." grinned Raph.

Cori sighed deeply.

Everyone soon left the lab, except for Rita and Donny, who continued tuning up their mapping machines.

Later on that night, Cori and Raph were up with Ashton as they all prepared some weapons. Ashton glanced over at Cori and Raph laughing and talking together. She then looked down at her work. She could contain it no more. She slammed down her work and stormed out of the lair.

"Whoa, what's up with her?" Cori asked.

"I don't know." said Raph, then he put down his work. "But I'm about to find out."

Raph followed Ashton out of the lair, and down some corridors. "Ash, hey Ash, wait a second."

Ashton stopped walking after a while.

Raph came up to her.

Ashton turned around.

Raph looked into her angry eyes. "What's wrong kid?"

"I'm surprised you noticed something was wrong, especially with your girlfriend over there." she hissed bitterly.

"Whoa, whoa. I think I smell some jealousy here. What's all the hating about?"

Ashton sighed deeply, and looked away from Raph. "I'm not hating. I don't hate Cori, I think she's cool. I just miss . . . . you don't hang out with me anymore. Ever since you met Cori, I've been chopped liver. I probably would've never met the assassin if _someone_ had been paying attention to me that night."

Raph looked surprised. "I've been neglectin ya?"

Ashton nodded slightly. 

"Gee kid, I'm sorry. It's just that . . . "

"It's just that you met another female Turtle who's almost just like you, you really like her, and fell in love. I'm happy for you Raph, really." Ashton sighed. "I dunno, maybe I'm just takin it too seriously."

"Nah, you're right." said Raph. "I mean, Donny's got Rita, Mikey's got Shelly, Leo's got Venus, Splinter can chill with Pidgina, and I've got Cori. I guess I forgot that, all you got is a new enemy."

"Basically." said Ashton.

"I'm sorry kiddo, I didn't know this bothered ya so much. I guess I shoulda paid more attention to you."

Ashton nodded. "I don't mind you spendin time with Cori, I know you like her and all. But sometimes, I need a little attention too."

"True, true. I'll pay more attention to ya. Hey, maybe sometimes all three of us, ya know you, me, and Cori can chill together."

Ashton smiled slightly. "I think I'd like that."

Cori peeked her head around the corner of the corridor where Raph and Ashton were. "Am I intruding??"

"Nah, come on." said Ashton, gesturing for Cori to join them.

Cori walked over to them. "So what was the deal??"

"I've been neglecting Ashton a bit. We were best friends back in NY, I haven't been paying much attention to her since we got out to LA."

"Ohhh . . . I think I get it." said Cori. She turned to Ashton. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Its ok." said Ashton. "Just don't make a habit of it."

Cori chuckled. "Okay."

"We betta get back to makin those weapons; we're gonna need 'em soon." said Raph. "Why don't you join us where we were makin weapons?"

"Yeah, we were even talkin about you." said Cori as they walked back to the lair.

"Me??"

"Yeah, Raph was tellin me about some chair incident." said Cori.

Ashton covered her face and started laughing. "Oh no, not the chair incident!"

Raph put an arm around Ashton. "Oh yeah, the chair incident. I remember it like it was yesterday, Mikey was playing another one of his pranks with Donny's glue gun, and Ashton happened to sit on the wrong chair at the wrong time . . . ." 

Raph relayed the humorous story to Cori, as Ashton bashfully covered her face and laughed, on their way back to the lair.


	21. Mapping Out Pt 1

A couple of evenings later, the Turtles and Ashton were getting ready to head out to the old laboratory. 

"Does everyone have their disguises on?" asked Leo as he glanced around at everyone.

"Sure do." said Mikey, putting on his hat.

"Like, check." said Shelly, putting the hood of her cloak over her head.

Ashton put her hat on. "Ditto."

"Great, then I guess we're ready to go." said Leo.

"Okay everyone, we're gonna go to the local subway station and take the subway as close to the lab as possible, then just walk the rest of the way there, which isn't a long walk." said Rita.

"After that, you all know the plan. Go in, and map out the important areas." said Donny.

"Yeah yeah yeah, we got it, let's just go." said Cori. "I ain't feelin this stuffy old cloak."

"This trenchcoat itches." said Mikey, scratching his arm.

"Oh stop complaining." said Donny as he put his Bo staff in his belt.

"Be careful." said Splinter.

"Don't let your disguises fall off." said Pidgina. "Oh dear, I do so hate this whole thing."

"We'll be fine." said Cori.

Pidgina sighed heavily.

The Turtles and Ashton then left the lair and went to the local subway station.

At the subway station, the Turtles and Ashton ducked into the shadows, snuck past the paying booths, and went down into the subway system.

"That was easy." said Mikey.

"Yeah." grinned Shelly.

"Which train are we taking?" asked Ashton.

A train soon stopped on their side of the tracks.

"This one." said Donny.

They all got onto the train, and took the emptiest traincar.

"How long a ride are we talkin?" asked Raph.

Rita glanced at her watch. "About an hour."

"Sheesh." said Cori.

"Better get settled." said Leo.

"Aw man, and I forgot to bring my Gameboy." said Mikey.

"Oh man." said Shelly.

Venus just glanced at them, then leaned on Leo and began falling asleep.

About an hour later, the train stopped.

"All right gang, this is our stop." said Donny.

They all got up, stretched, and exited the traincar. They then made their way out of the train station, and down a nearby hill.

The group soon reached the other side of town, and saw the eerie-looking old laboratory. Greenish light poured out from some of the windows, vines grew alongside the building, and a rusted old sign hung on one hinge of its holder. The only words of the sign that could still be made out were "Labs", being that the rest of the sign was rusted over. A single swinging light flickered its dimming light over the sign.

"Are you like, sure we have to like, go in there?" asked a leery Shelly.

"We gotta do, what we gotta do." said Leo.

"Come on." said Donny as he stepped forward towards the building. He opened a manhole in front of the building, and they all went inside. 

They walked through the sewers until they found a manhole directly underneath of the building, and went inside.

Inside, they ended up in the basement. It was dark, chilly, and smelled of sulfur and something else that made the Turtles and Ashton somewhat uneasy.

"Is that blood I smell?" asked Ashton.

"Umm, I think so." said Rita.

"Proceed cautiously everyone; we don't want that blood to be ours." said Donny.

"You don't gotta tell me twice." said Cori.

Donny and Rita handed everyone a flashlight, and mapping device.

"Now try and remember how to use these things; I gave lessons before and I don't feel like going through it again." said Donny.

"We got it, we got it." said Raph impatiently.

"Wait." said Ashton as everyone was about to go.

"What?" asked Venus.

"I hear people; not a lot, but there are a few of them." said Ashton.

"Where?" asked Donny.

"Upstairs. I think this seemingly broken down old lab is still very active and buzzing with activity. There may be more people than we thought." said Ashton.

"Oh great." said Donny sarcastically.

"Come on, people or not, this still has to be done." said Rita. "Just be extra careful."

"I agree." said Venus. "Let's go."

They all then found stairs going up from the basement, and began climbing up to the first floor. 


	22. Mapping Out Pt 2

Once the Turtles and Ashton got upstairs, they split up into different corridors.

Shelly and Venus went down one hallway and into the first room they came to.

In that room, there were huge holding tanks filled with ooze. 

"Like, whoa." said Shelly as he looked up at the large tanks.

"This is a _very_ important room." said Venus as she began using the mapping device. She looked at it with a quizzical expression, then turned to Shelly. "What was this button for again?" she asked as she pointed to a red button.

Shelly looked at the machine and stared at it for a while. "Oh! That's like, the button you use when the room is like, important or whatever." she said. "Mikey showed me." she grinned.

Venus chuckled a bit at Shelly's happy grin, then used the machine.

The group was there for a while, dodging various lab technicians as they mapped out the rather complex laboratory.

At one point, Ashton came to a room filled with nothing but cages and wooden crates. She growled lowly. "I hate cages."  
Just then, she heard someone coming, and hid behind a large crate.

A lab technician came in, and began wheeling out a tall, very thick-barred cage. He had goggles sitting on his forehead, as if he used them recently, and there were blood stains on his white lab coat. 

Ashton watched him curiously as he left the room. She then glanced around, saw no ooze, and left the room, silently pursuing the technician down the hallway. She followed him all the way to a large metal door where the technician used a card to slip into a slot next to the door. The door slid open upwards, and the technician walked in, still wheeling the large cage.

As the door began closing, Ashton quietly slipped in behind the technician. She stood silently and hid in the shadows near the door while the technician traveled down the long hallway. She looked at the door after it closed, wondering how she'd get back out, but decided to worry about that later. She silently pursued the technician down the hallway, and down a flight of stairs.

Downstairs, the technician turned and went into a room. Ashton was about to follow, but stopped herself. The smell of blood was even stronger, she heard strange machines, and a lot of activity. She walked alongside of the room where the technician went in. There was a large window that ran alongside the entire room, which was in fact an experimenting room. There were long metal tables, some with people strapped down to them. There were lab technicians carting the seemingly tranquilized people around in cages. Ashton watched as they injected ooze into some people, and took blood samples from others. Then she noticed a table with vials of blood all over it. A man, looking older than any of the others, stood there looking at one vial.

"Dr. Rigler; the subject on table 5 is ready for the injection." Ashton overheard a lab technician say to him.

"Very good." said Dr. Rigler, the scientist. He then gave the lab technician a needle filled with ooze. "Give him the entire thing."

The lab technician nodded and walked off.

Ashton heard a man screaming. "My eyes! My eyes!" She began to feel panicked, and remembered when she was in the lab when she was younger; all the noise and anguish she heard; all the white lab coats . . .

She suddenly turned from the scene and ran up the stairs, and to the door that slid upwards. Ashton stared at the keypad next to the door. She began pressing all the buttons in a panic. A siren went off, and she held her ears tightly. Then the door opened, and Ashton ran out. 

As she ran, she passed by Donny and Leo. "Run! We gotta leave now!" shouted Ashton.

Donny and Leo looked puzzled, but decided to listen to Ashton and run.

Hearing the siren, everyone else ran out of the laboratory, and into the manhole in the basement. Soon, they were all outside going back to the train station.

Raph looked around at everyone, and noticed that Ashton wasn't walking with them. He then turned around and saw her standing in the grassy field looking numb.

"Yo, wait up, Ashton's not walkin with us." said Raph.

Everyone stopped and turned around.

"What's wrong kiddo?" asked Raph as he walked over to Ashton.

Ashton could hear Raph's voice, and she wanted to respond, but she just felt numb. Flashes of the laboratory ran through her mind. Flashbacks of the time when she was living in the laboratory in Chile mixed in with the lab memories of tonight. 

Just then, she felt Raph's hand on her shoulder, and snapped out of her flashback trance. She looked up to see Raph, and everyone else standing there, looking at her.

"Are you all right?" asked Rita.

Ashton sighed heavily. "You wouldn't believe what I saw tonight; it was awful."

"Was whatever you're gonna tell us the reason that siren went off?" asked Leo.

"Yeah, pretty much." Ashton sighed deeply once again. "They're doing experiments on people with the ooze. I don't know why, but they just are. I saw that T.G.R.I. scientist too; him and his lab technicians. They're testing blood and everything. I ran and to get out I had to press these buttons on this keypad near a door; I think that's what set the alarm off." she said. "People are in cages; its just like what happened back in the lab in Chile; I thought I would never have to see those people in their #@%* white lab coats again." she said angrily.

"Whoa Ashton, Master wouldn't be happy if you start using language like that." said Mikey.

"Sorry." said Ashton. Then she began walking. "You try living in a lab; all you wanna do is forget those memories, not relive them."

The others looked at each other for a moment, then began walking with Ashton. 

As the Turtles and Ashton headed to the train station, a figure stepped out of the nearby bushes. All you could see at first was its glowing red eyes, then as it stepped out into the dim moonlight, the figure revealed itself to be Schiam. He stared after the Turtles and Ashton as they walked back to the train station. He thought long and hard as they walked off. Then he turned away and began walking towards another train station in the opposite direction.


	23. Resting Up

Back at the lair, Donny collected everyone's mapping devices, and headed over to his computer.

"Man, I'm beat." said Mikey as he headed to the room he used.

"Me too, I'm gonna hit the sack." said Cori, yawning.

"Mikey snores loudly; you got any extra space in your room?" Raph asked, looking at Cori rather curiously.

Cori looked up at him for a moment. "Raph, I ran around a huge laboratory, I walked a good ways to and from a train station, and endured a long train ride both ways. Do you really think I'm in the mood for that?"

"There will be none of that in this house!" said Pidgina, overhearing what Raph said.

Raph turned to Pidgina, looking a bit surprised, and embarrassed at the same time.

Pidgina gave him a stern look.

Raph just walked away.

Ashton chuckled. "Nice goin Raph."

"You hush." said Raph.

Ashton just smiled, and sighed. No matter what went wrong, her 'family' could always make her smile. This thought put her mind at ease, and she went to go to sleep.

Donny sat up with the mapping devices, when Rita came by him and took the one he was holding away from him. He looked up at Rita.

"And what do you think you're doing up at this hour?" Rita asked. "Look at you, your eyes and are red and you can't stop yawning.

"But I need to finish this mapping so we can pick a day to plant the bombs." said Donny.

"I tell you what; I'll do some of the mapping tonight, and tomorrow, we can work on both the mapping and the explosives." said Rita.

"No really." Donny said yawning. "I can do it all tonight."

Rita sighed and shook her head. Then she pulled Donny up from his chair, and pointed to the room he slept in. "Go, sleep, now."

Donny looked at her and smiled. "Yes ma'am." he said. 

Rita giggled.

Donny gave her a kiss, then walked off to bed.

Rita sighed and watched him walk into his room, then she went to the computer.

That night, the lab technicians at the laboratory looked around the lab in search of something.

Dr. Rigler walked up to one of the technicians. "What happened? Why did it go off?" he asked sternly.

"We don't know sir." said the lab technician, scratching his head. "There isn't a trace of anyone, nothing's been stolen or broken."

"Maybe its faulty wiring." said another technician.

"Well whatever it is, make sure it doesn't happen again." said Dr. Rigler. "We can't have these experiments interrupted."

Another technician came up to them. "Dr. Rigler, sir. Daniel just came back with more subjects."

"Excellent, tranquilize them and put them downstairs." said Dr. Rigler.

"Yes sir." said the technician and he walked off.

"Sometimes I wonder if these experiments are doing any good in discovering just what the ooze is capable of." said Dr. Rigler impatiently. "It seems like all I'm doing is ridding the filthy streets of California from their homeless." He then walked away, impatiently mumbling to himself.

One of the technicians watched as he left; she had a look of discomfort in her face.

"What's wrong?" asked another technician.

"I don't know. I guess its just that, well, I hate knowing that they're doing these things on people." she said.

"So." said the other technician as he put his hands in his pockets. "They're homeless."

The technician looked at him quickly. "They're still people." she said somewhat angrily.

The guy just looked at her like it didn't matter to him.

The lady technician just stormed off down the hallway.

The guy walked off down the opposite side of the hallway.


	24. Rain Battle

The next day in the Turtle lair, Rita was busy making a detailed map of the laboratory, and Donny was making the explosives with Leo's help.

The others were in the dojo training with Master Splinter for future battles. Pidgina watched on curiously as she sipped her afternoon tea.

Shelly watched as Leo and Raph sparred. "I will never be able to like, do that." 

"Oh sure ya can Shell; it gets sorta easy after you learn it." said Mikey. "Don't worry, I'll work with you on that."

Shelly smiled.

They all sparred and practiced for the rest of the day.

Later on that day, it began raining. Everyone set up pots or buckets under each leak that sprang.

"I like, hate it when it rains." said Shelly, after setting down one of the last buckets.

Ashton listened intently to the sound of the rain. "I love it." she said quietly, as she walked towards the lair exit in an almost trance-like state.

"What the . . ."

"Don't worry about it. She always gets like this whenever she hasn't been around rain for a while." said Raph.

"Must be a rainforest thing." said Mikey.

Ashton walked out of the lair, and exited the sewers. She stood in the middle of the park nearby, in the rain, basking in the sound and feel of it. She spread out her arms and closed her eyes as she faced the sky. She stood there for the longest time, enjoying the feeling of the rain.

A sudden sense of not being alone came over her. Ashton opened her eyes and found herself face to face, up close with Schiam. 

"Aaah!!" she screamed as she jumped backwards.

Schiam smirked as he stepped out into the dimming light of a street lamp. "Hello again."

"Where did you come from?!" exclaimed an angry Ashton. "Couldn't you see I was enjoying the rain?!"

Schiam looked up for a moment. "It is rather nice." Then he turned back to Ashton. "But I rather deal with you right now." he said, arching his back in that certain way he always did before he struck.

Ashton extended her nails. "I thought you'd had enough by now snake boy." 

"Oh never that." he chuckled, then charged at her.

Ashton spun out of the way as Schiam came at her, and scratched him across the chest as he passed by.

Schiam stopped on the opposite side of Ashton, and then touched his chest gingerly, looking at the blood that began dripping from his wounds. He looked up at Ashton.

Ashton smirked, the rain washing the blood stains from her nails. She extended the nails from her toes in preparation for Schiam's next attack.

"Seems like I have to take my fighting to the next level." he said.

"Only the next level? Come on, gimme your very best." said Ashton, briefly pushing wet hair away from her face.

Schiam looked at her with an amused look on his face. Then he suddenly jetted behind a tree, and disappeared.

"Oh come on now, don't be chicken." said Ashton. "Bring it on!"

"If you insist." said Schiam.

Ashton didn't know where he was until he knocked right into her. She quickly balanced herself, and turned to face Schiam.

Schiam was on the opposite side of where Ashton was looking, and he brought his arm up, and wrapped it around Ashton's neck.

Ashton gasped as Schiam's strong arm began choking her. She could no longer talk, and very little oxygen was left. She tried to reach up and dig her nails into his arm, but Schiam used his other arm to hold Ashton's down.

"And you thought you could take it." grinned Schiam.

Ashton's eyes narrowed; she was determined not to lose. In one quick maneuver, Ashton flipped upwards, her nails helping her feet get a grip on the low, wet branch of a tree nearby. Then she twisted her body quickly without twisting her neck too. The rapid movement caught Schiam off guard and he let Ashton go.

Still holding onto the branch, Ashton flipped over and kicked Schiam in the face.

Schiam fell over, slipping on the wet grass. He quickly righted himself, and as brief, distant lightning flashed, he saw Ashton disappear up into a tree.

Schiam ran up into the tree, and the tree shook violently for a moment, before both fell out.

Ashton began running, with Schiam close behind.

"Get back here!" exclaimed Schiam.

As they ran, Ashton stopped in her tracks, turned around, and as Schiam came at her, delivered a punch to his sore chest so strong, that he flew backwards, and into a muddy puddle on the sidewalk.

Ashton smirked a little, then ran off back to the lair.

Schiam sat up from where he was knocked down, and looked off to where Ashton ran. His chest was very sore, his pants were soaking wet, and even though he could easily go after her, he decided to wait.

"Don't worry kid, I'll get you." said Schiam darkly. He then stood up, and walked off in another direction.

Back at the lair, Ashton walked in soaking wet and breathing hard.

"Sheesh, is the rain _that_ exciting?" asked a puzzled Cori.

Ashton smiled with a slight laugh. "You have no idea."


	25. Preparation

The next day, Donny peered over the plans for placing the bombs in the laboratory. 

"Something just isn't right." he said.

Rita walked over to him and looked at the plans as she sipped her coffee. "I agree." she said after taking a sip. "But . . ."

Donny glanced up at her. "But what? I thought I had it all figured out."

Rita smiled lightly as she handed Donny her cup of coffee. "Hold this hon." she said.

Donny took the cup, and got off the stool so Rita could sit down. 

Rita took a pencil and began making some modifications to the plans. She then looked at it for a moment. "Take a look."

Donny looked down at the paper. "Of course!"

Rita held out her hand for her cup, and Donny gave it to her as he still looked at the plans.

"Excellent ideas." said Donny. 

"What can I say? Behind every great mind . . ."

"Is a female with an even greater mind to help him out." said Donny, looking at Rita fondly.

Rita smiled happily, then looked down at her cup, and frowned slightly. "Hey!"

"What?" asked Donny looking at her.

"I said hold it, not _drink_ it!" said Rita.

Donny grinned sheepishly.

Rita playfully hit him. 

"Ow!" 

Venus stood in the area of the sewers they designated as the dojo, and sighed deeply as Shelly got up.

"Why like, do you have to be so rough?" asked Shelly.

"That's nothing compared to what the dragons are gonna do to you." said Leo, who was standing nearby watching Shelly and Venus spar.

Shelly rubbed her shell. "This sucks."

"Sure does; but its our duty to stop the dragons from getting to that ooze." said Venus.

"Hmm, maybe that isn't the best technique for teaching her. I mean, that isn't how Splinter taught me." said Mikey.

"Yeah, you were the 'special' case." said Leo.

Mikey looked at him with a slightly displeased expression on his face. "I'll choose ignore that."

Leo snickered.

Venus just shook her head and sighed, then turned to Shelly. "Listen, we haven't much time until we have to go back to the laboratory. The dragons must know we are up to something, and we could very well meet up with them. You must be ready to take them on." 

"Well its like, gonna be hard ya know." said Shelly.

"Yes, I know." said Venus.

Just then, Cori and Ashton walked by them holding 8 boxes of pizza, and a bag of Chinese food.

"Lunch has arrived. Come and get it!" said Cori as she and Ashton began walking by the others.

"Thank goodness, I'm starving!" said Leo as he began following them back to the lair.

"Pizza!!" exclaimed Mikey as he started joining the others, walking back to the lair. He then noticed that Shelly was lagging behind. He looked back curiously, then walked over to her.

"What's the matter Shelly?" asked Mikey softly as he stood in front of her.

"Its like, all this fighting stuff. I don't think I'm cut out for it ya know?"

"Aww, don't let what Venus and Leo say get you down; I know you can do it. Its all about technique." said Mikey. "Ya know what, after lunch, I'm gonna do something I've been saying I'll do for a while; I'm gonna teach you how to fight, Mikey-style."

Shelly smiled. "Like, really?"

"No doubt."

"Cool." said Shelly.

Mikey smiled. "Now come on, keep a smile on that pretty face, and let's get some pizza!"

"Yeah!"

They both then ran back to the lair.

During their dinner that evening, Donny and Rita explained the plans to everyone.

"Okay everyone, listen up." said Donny. He took a sip of water. "The maps have been made, and within the next day or two, the explosives will be ready."

"Which means, in exactly three days, we will be heading back out to the laboratory. This time we'll be going to plant the bombs." said Rita.

"We have to be well-prepared to deal with dragon interference, as well as strengthen our skills in stealth so that we don't call any attention to ourselves." said Donny.

"Any questions?" asked Rita.

Ashton raised her hand.

"Yes Ashton."

"What if Schiam pops up?"

"We're sure you can handle him." said Donny. "But hope and pray that he doesn't show up."

"He will." said Ashton absent-mindedly as she continued eating her dinner.

Donny sighed heavily. He and Rita then joined the others for dinner.

Late that night, Mikey and Shelly were in the sparring area of the sewers. They had been there for hours, training Shelly to fight. It was hard work, and Shelly was a bit on the clumsy side, but it wasn't all in vain.

It was getting really late, both of them were getting tired, but Mikey wasn't giving up on Shelly, and Shelly wasn't giving up on herself. Mikey caught her in a headlock; but not for long. Using a series of maneuvers, she learned from Mikey, Shelly freed herself, and pinned Mikey down to the ground.

Mikey grinned as Shelly let him get up. "You did it." he said as they stood up.

"Ohmygosh! I like, sooo did it!!" Shelly then grabbed Mikey and gave him a big kiss.

After the kiss, Mikey looked a little stunned. 

"Oh are you okay sweetie?" asked Shelly.

"Uh huh." said Mikey.

Shelly smiled. "Thanks."

Mikey sighed. "No problem." He then took her hand. "Come on, let's go back home."

"K." said Shelly as they walked back to the lair together.


	26. Decisions

That evening, Dragon Lord felt uneasy.

"Something isn't right." he said.

Wick looked over at him. "What's the matter Master?"

"I don't know. But something isn't right." said Dragon Lord. "I haven't heard from that Schiam character for a while now. I'm eager to know if he's destroyed that feline freak yet."

"Shall I go get him from his dimension majesty?" asked Wick.

Dragon Lord sat thinking for a moment. "No. We shall wait and see." 

Just then, Dragon Lord and Wick both felt a draft. They looked around for a moment, wondering where it came from.

"Looking for me?" asked Schiam as he leaned against a wall in the room.

"Schiam." said Dragon Lord, his eyes glowing red for a moment. "Why haven't I seen you in a while?"

"I've been busy." said Schiam. He stopped leaning on the wall. "You gave me a job to do, I've been taking care of my task."

"So you've destroyed the feline?" 

"Actually, no." said Schiam.

"Explain." said Dragon Lord, as his eyes glowed red with anger.

The glowing of Dragon Lord's eyes never once phased Schiam, and he coolly leaned back against the wall again. "I'm testing her skills. You gave me a false picture of her. You said she was mainly a directionless adolescent; she's actually very focused."

"Its that ninja rat; he's probably taught her all she knows." said Dragon Lord.

"Ninja rat or not; she's good. Nothing I can't handle though." said Schiam. "In the meantime, I suggest you keep an eye out for your Turtle friends as well. They're out here too you know, and believe me, they're making plans."

"What plans might these be?"

"Let's just say, I saw them up by that laboratory. As far as I can tell, they did nothing but look."

"When did this happen?" asked Dragon Lord as he sat up.

"I don't know. A couple of days ago I suppose." said Schiam briefly looking at one of his nails.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" asked Dragon Lord upsetly. "You work for me, remember? You have to tell me these things right away."

Schiam briefly shot Dragon Lord a mean glare. "You're paying me to take care of the feline, not be your informant. You have those pathetic-excuses-for-warriors to do that type of thing. The information was a bonus. And as such, I expect to see a bonus in my pay."

Dragon Lord felt a burning anger rise up within him. "If I didn't require your services to destroy the feline adolescent, I would destroy you right now."

Schiam chuckled faintly behind this. "Try is more like it. It's not easy to destroy me; believe me, many have tried. As you can see, they've all failed."

Dragon Lord looked at Schiam with an expression of slight disgust. 

Schiam looked indifferent to Dragon Lord's expression, then turned away. "I'm hungry. I'm going home now." he said, noticing a mouse scurry across the floor.

"I have not dismissed you." said Dragon Lord.

"I know." said Schiam. Then just as quickly as he had come in, he left.

Dragon Lord growled lowly.

"Insubordinate snake." said Wick.

Schiam went back to his dimension, fixed himself a meal, and sat in his treehouse eating his dinner. He sighed deeply. Talking to Dragon Lord was impossible sometimes. He couldn't stand being treated as hired help, as being 'under' someone. He thought about all that had gone on that day. He finished his dinner, then sighed as he laid down on his bed.

Only a day ago was his 3rd encounter with Ashton. Each time he fought her, he realized what kind of person she was. A fierce fighter, a fast thinker . . . a tortured soul. She was neither human nor mutant; the two biggest groups she lived around. Life wasn't exactly smooth for her, and he knew it. She was smart and cunning, slick and sly; qualities he himself mastered. She was young, and a little naïve, he thought. She'd be easy to beat. The question is, did he want to?

Yes, he was getting paid handsomely for the deed, but didn't approve of taking orders from anyone, especially not someone as ruthless and heartless as Dragon Lord. Schiam never felt obligated to anybody, and he wasn't going to start now.

Ashton, the panther hybrid girl. Schiam thought long and hard, should he destroy her, or should he not? He laid down and thought for a while before sitting up decisively; he knew what he had to do.


	27. Placing the bombs

*Note: Hey peoplez, sorry it takes so long for me to get these chapters up recently, but there's sooo much stuff to do before ya graduate from high school, crazy! Anyways, I'm gonna continue this story to the end, so don't ever worry that I've stopped writing it. Its just a matter of finding the time to finish it. Thanks for the reviews so far; back to the story! 

After days of preparation, the Turtles and Ashton set out to destroy the ooze in the laboratory.

They all sat on the train they usually took, disguised, and each holding a bag with explosives, a communicator, and a portable map. Donny and Rita had just explained to everyone what the plans were, where they would go, and how to place the bombs.

"Does anyone need further explanation?" asked Donny.

"No, I think I got it." said Leo as he attached his communicator to his belt.

"Wait, what's like, this yellow button for again?" asked Shelly.

"That's the button you press after you put the bomb in place." said Rita.

"Ohhh." said Shelly looking at the button for a while. "K."

"10 bucks says she forgets what that button is again." said Raph to the side to Cori.

Cori tried to suppress a laugh.

After a long train ride, the Turtles and Ashton finally arrived at the laboratory.

"Has it gotten creepier, or is it just me?" asked Rita as they stood in front of the building, looking up at it.

"Its not just you." Ashton said quietly.

Raph put a hand on her shoulder. "Its gonna be okay kiddo. Be strong."

Ashton looked over at him. "Thanks." she smiled slightly.

Donny opened the manhole that led underneath of the laboratory, and they all went in.

They soon ended up in the basement of the laboratory. 

"To do this quickly, we should all split up into our own corridor. Use the communicator to keep in touch, and keep your eyes and ears peeled." said Donny.

"Got it." said everyone.

"Okay." Rita sighed. "Let's do this."

They all went up into the laboratory and split up.

Ashton reluctantly walked down a corridor. Her sensitive ears picked up sounds from the other laboratory downstairs. She winced, trying to push certain images and thoughts out of her mind. "Mantenha seu fresco." (keep your cool) Ashton said to herself as she continued walking. She soon came to a room. Glancing down at the map, she realized it was one of the rooms that had the ooze in it, and she carefully proceeded into it.

Inside, vials of ooze sat on shelves and tables. They were of varying shades of green and thicknesses. Ashton looked at them all for a moment, then set a bomb on each shelf and table that held ooze. She pressed the yellow button, and exited the room.

Mikey came to a room filled with large holding tanks of ooze. "Man, why do they make so much of this stuff?" he asked to himself. Just then, he heard footsteps, and hid behind some crates.

A man in a white lab coat came in with a jar of some blue substance. He opened a hatch on one of the large holding tanks, opened the jar, and poured the contents of the jar into the holding tank. He closed the hatch, and the churning in the holding tank became louder, but only for a moment. The man turned a dial on the holding tank, then left the room.

Mikey waited until he left, then quickly placed the bombs in the room, set them, and ran out.

The Turtles were sneaking around unnoticed for about an hour now, placing bombs in all the rooms that contained ooze.

Donny looked down at his mapping device, which was the master mapping device. It showed the rooms that contained the bombs. He smiled as he saw that a majority of the rooms were covered.

"Keep up the good work guys, only two more rooms to go." said Donny over his communicator.

"Great!" said Cori. "I been wanting to leave this place ever since we got here."

"Who hasn't?" commented Rita.

The others chuckled.

As Leo walked down a hallway, he noticed a figure lying motionless on the ground up ahead. As he stared harder, he could see the figure was wearing a light sea green bandanna.

Leo gasped as he ran down the hallway and over to Venus, who was completely unconscious. As soon as he reached her, he looked her over. "Mei, Mei, come on, talk to me."

Venus didn't stir a bit.

Leo nervously pulled his communicator off his belt and began speaking into it. "Someone, anyone, come in, please!"

"What's all the ruckus about Leo?" asked Raph.

"Its Venus, she's unconscious! I don't know how it happened." said Leo.

"Whoa, are you serious?" 

"Why would I kid at a time like this Raph?! Something's not right." said Leo. 

Just then, Leo was pushed down from behind. 

Leo quickly turned onto his shell and looked up at his attacker; a dragon warrior. A shocked expression came over Leo's face as the dragon warrior was about to deliver another blow. Leo rolled out of the way, then leaped up and prepared to fight his attacker. Before he began his fight, he spoke into the communicator one last time.

"Look out for dragons!" exclaimed Leo.

As the dragon charged at him, he dropped his communicator, and a battle began.

"Dragons huh?" Ashton asked as she looked down at two dragons she just beat. "No kidding."

Donny looked at his mapping device, and saw that all of the bombs were in place. "Okay everyone, nows a good time to book!"

"I couldn't like, have put it better myself!" said Shelly as she ran down the hallway by him.

Cori and Rita then rushed by Donny. Cori and Shelly kept running to the exit, but Rita stopped and turned around to go to Donny. 

"Why are you just standing here? Dragons are coming! Let's go!" exclaimed Rita.

"I know I know. But just one last thing has to be done." said Donny. Then he pressed a button on the master mapping machine. "Bombs are set to go off in one minute. Let's roll!"

"Finally!" said Rita, pulling Donny along.

Raph came by where Leo was fighting, and helped him beat the dragon.

"Thanks Raph." said Leo, out of breath.

"Yeah yeah yeah, don't mention it." said Raph, reaching underneath Venus' arms. "Well don't just stand there, grab her legs and lets get outta here!"

Leo quickly did so, and they ran out.


	28. Aftermath

Outside, the Turtles and Ashton ran far into the field in front of the lab. Soon, explosions were heard inside of the laboratory. Glass, metal, and other objects flew out of some of the windows. Fire engulfed the two floors above the basement.

They all stood in the field watching in amazement as the laboratory almost completely went up in flames.

"Whoa." said Mikey.

"Oh I do hope nobody was killed." said Rita worriedly.

"Who cares?" Ashton said bitterly. "They're all there for one purpose, and one purpose only. The world would be better without people like them anyway."

"Ashton!" scolded Leo. "Is that any way to think about human lives?"

"Let her alone Leo." said Raph. "She has a different history with those type of people than we do. Its how she thinks."

Ashton's expression agreed with Raph's comment.

Leo sighed. 

Just then, Venus began stirring.

Leo kneeled by her side. "Mei?"

Venus slowly opened her eyes. She saw Leo and a small smile came over her face. "Hey."

"Are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere?" asked Leo concernedly.

"My neck aches a little, but I am fine otherwise." said Venus. "The dragons were here."

"Yeah, we know." said Leo.

Venus looked up and saw the moon. She didn't even realize they were outside. "We finished the mission?" 

"Yep." said Leo. He helped sit Venus up on the grass. 

Venus looked at the burning building in front of them with wide-eyed amazement. "Wow."

"Hopefully that's all we have to do here." said Raph.

"Yeah, hopefully." said Mikey.

"Come on, let's go back to the train station. We can check on things tomorrow." said Donny.

"Good idea." said Leo. He helped Venus completely stand up, and they all began walking back.

Cori noticed Ashton lingering behind. "Ash?"

Ashton glanced back at her. "Yeah?"

"You comin or what?" asked Cori.

"You all keep goin, I'll catch up." said Ashton.

"Ya sure?" asked Cori.

Ashton nodded as she turned back to the lab.

Cori shrugged, then kept on walking.

Ashton stared up at the building and imagined all the scientists in their white lab coats being gone forever. She smiled to herself behind that, and felt guilty for thinking that way, though she didn't know why. Deciding to join the others, Ashton turned around and began walking back.

As she was walking back, she heard rustling in some bushes nearby. Looking around, she saw nothing, until a figure stepped out of some thick brush. The figure happened to be none other than Schiam.

"Oh man, not you again." said Ashton.

"I'm afraid so." said Schiam as he began approaching her.


	29. Schiam's Decision

Ashton's nails extended as she faced Schiam. "Guess you haven't learned yet; I don't give up."

Schiam studied her carefully. "I see you've been practicing."

"Always am." said Ashton. "Now enough talk snake man, let's do this."  
Schiam kept approaching for a moment before he stopped walking towards Ashton, and put his hands in his pockets. "I'm not gonna fight you."

Ashton looked confused, but still stood her ground. She didn't know if this was a trick or not. "What are you talking about?"

"You're not dumb Ashton, I'm sure you understood what I just said." said Schiam. "I'm not gonna fight you, I see no reason to."

Ashton set her stance partly at ease now. "Are you serious? What about the pay Dragon Lord is giving you?"  
Schiam smirked slightly as he looked away from Ashton. "I don't need it. I live in the rainforest of my dimension, live in a tree, eat whatever jungle rodents I find, shield myself from the rain with the large leaves; you know how it is. Solitary, just like I like it."

"You're serious." said Ashton in disbelief. 

Schiam nodded.

"What gives?"

Schiam looked at Ashton for a moment. "I take orders from no one. I refuse to do something I just see no reason to do, for something I really don't need. Just don't ever get in my way." He then began walking away. 

Ashton looked after him, still in disbelief.

Schiam then stopped for a moment. "And besides, you've found something that I still haven't found, and will be searching for, for the rest of my life. May lightning strike me dead if I try and take that from you."

Ashton didn't get it at first, then realized what he meant. She looked at him with disbelief in her expression.

Schiam turned around just long enough to catch her expression, but just turned away. 

Ashton watched him walk off into the shadows. After she looked off in his direction for a while, she heard a horn blow, and realized that the train was getting ready to leave.

"Oh man!" she exclaimed. She then sat back on her legs before sprinting forward to the train station. 

Ashton reached the train just as it began moving. The Turtles had the door open waiting for her. "Thanks y'all." she said as she sat down.

"What took you so daggone long?" asked Raph as he closed the door to the traincar.

Ashton sighed deeply. "Long story, lets just say, Schiam's not gonna be bothering me anymore."

"What?" asked Leo.

"You beat him didn't you?" asked Cori.

"No, its hard to explain." said Ashton thoughtfully as she thought of what Schiam said to her. "He's like I was, until I found you all."

The others looked confused, but Venus, reading Ashton's mind, understood all too well. 

Ashton sighed deeply, then sat back as she relaxed for the long train ride back.

That night, Schiam went to Dragon Lord's fortress.

Dragon Lord sat at his throne going over a checklist with Wick.

"That seems to be everything majesty." said Wick.

"Capital." nodded Dragon Lord.

Just then, they felt a breeze come through the room.

"Schiam." said Dragon Lord as his eyes narrowed slightly.

Schiam grinned from his corner of the room. He then stepped up to Dragon Lord's throne.

"What are you doing here?" asked Wick. "You should be out destroying that feline creature!"

"Or have you destroyed her already?" asked Dragon Lord curiously, and somewhat hopefully.

"On the contrary, I haven't." said Schiam coolly.

"What is taking you so long to do so?!" asked Dragon Lord impatiently.

"I've been thinking." said Schiam as he looked away for a moment, then turned back to Dragon Lord. "I've decided not to destroy her anymore; I see no reason to."

"What?!!" asked an angered Dragon Lord as his eyes glowed bright red.

"You incompetent snake!" complained Wick.

"Call me what you like, I'm no longer destroying her. You can keep your money; I don't need it." said Schiam.

"Oh, you have made a terrible mistake." said Dragon Lord darkly. Then he snapped his fingers.

A group of warriors standing nearby surrounded Schiam.

Schiam glanced around at them and smirked. "Really now. These poor pathetic-excuses-for-warriors can't subdue an adolescent feline, and now you expect them to subdue _me_?" Schiam chuckled. 

Just then, in a flash, he attacked the whole rank that surrounded him, and exited the lair just as quickly as he had come.

Outside, Schiam looked back at the fortress as Dragon Lord bellowed out loudly and angrily. He smirked, then walked off. "Time to go home."


	30. Ashes and Debris

Back at the Turtle lair, it was the next morning, and everyone had just gotten back from the train station.

"Man I'm hungry!" said Mikey as he headed to the kitchen.

"How did the mission go?" Pidgina asked curiously.

"It went rather well. We blew up what we needed to; so that should be it." said Rita as she put down some things on her desk.

"And Schiam isn't gonna bother me anymore." said Ashton as she sat down on the couch.

"How so?" Splinter asked curiously.

Ashton shrugged. "Change of heart I suppose."

"Didn't know he had one." mumbled Raph.

"Neither did I." said Ashton with a light laugh.

"So that's it? The ooze is destroyed?" asked Pidgina. "What about those dreadful dragons? Are they staying here?"

"They'll probably be leaving soon." said Leo. "With no more ooze, why would they stay?"

"True." said Pidgina.

"No more talk, let's get some food! I'm hungry!" said Shelly as she went to the kitchen.

Cori looked in the fridge. "Well, there's nothing here to cook. Guess we'll have to opt for pizza and Chinese food again."

Everyone then looked at Ashton.

"Wha . . . . oh never mind." said Ashton as she got up. "Ain't like Schiam is gonna come."

"Thank you Ashton." said everyone.

"Whateva." Ashton said rolling her eyes, but trying to suppress a smile. She then grabbed some money from a drawer where they kept it, and left the lair.

Back at Dragon Lord's fortress, a couple of warriors came limping in. Their uniforms were singed with ash, and one of them was coughing. They nearly collapsed at the foot of Dragon Lord's throne.

Dragon Lord looked at them with a surprised look on his face. "What happened?"

"We were (cough) at the lab (cough) your majesty." coughed one.

"We were trying to collect the ooze, but the Turtles and the feline came." said the other.

Dragon Lord growled lowly as his eyes momentarily glowed red.

"Well, did you get it?" asked Wick impatiently.

"No, we were not able to." said the one that wasn't coughing.

"And why not?!" exclaimed Dragon Lord angrily.

"They blew up certain parts of the lab (cough) your majesty (cough) where the ooze (cough) was being made." said the other.

Dragon Lord's eyes glowed red for the longest time. "NO!!"

The warriors shuddered.

Dragon Lord sat there seething angrily and thinking. He then turned to the warriors. "Where are the others that went on the mission?"

"They were killed in the explosion your majesty." replied one warrior.

"Go, get cleaned up and report to the sick area." ordered Dragon Lord.

"Yes your majesty." the warriors said, then they bowed quickly, and limped off.

Wick looked at Dragon Lord who sat very quietly, just staring straight ahead. "What are you going to do your majesty?"

"I cannot let those Turtles and that cat win; I have come too far." said Dragon Lord. He then turned to Wick. "Alert the warriors to start intense training, and to pack up." He then looked straight ahead again. "We're going to the lab ourselves."

At the laboratory, the sign that was on top of the lab fell off and into an ashy mess in front of the lab.

Inside the laboratory, sparks of electricity that came from broken wires crackled, simmering ash caused a thin cloud to form, small fires still crackled, and some technicians who used fire extinguishers to control some of the fire were still around putting out the rest of the small fires.

"Ruined!! Everything, ruined!!!" exclaimed the T.G.R.I. scientist as he came up from the basement of the lab, which was the only part unharmed by explosives.

Technicians came up from downstairs and looked around at the mess. They were in awe at how much was destroyed.

"Do you know how long it will take to fix this place up? Months, years, decades!!!!!" he complained. "I can't finish the experiments until the ooze is back in production!"

"Calm down Dr. Rigler. We still have an auxiliary production tank downstairs. I'm sure we can get it going within the next few days." said one technician.

Dr. Rigler looked at him, then turned back to the mess before him. "Start on it now."

The technician walked off followed by a couple of others.

"The rest of you, get this mess cleaned up, and quickly! Especially the outside; I don't want any suspicions arisen. Especially from law enforcement. Hurry up!" ordered Dr. Rigler.

The rest of the technicians ran off to begin the heavy task of cleanup.


	31. Love and Decisions

That evening in the Turtle lair, Splinter was packing some stuff he'd be taking when they went back home; stuff that he'd brought with him in the first place.

Shelly watched him for a moment, then went over to Mikey, who was sitting in front of the television with Raph, Cori, and Ashton. She sat next to him.

"Hey Mikey." said Shelly as she sat down.

"Hey Shelly, what's up?" asked Mikey as he turned to her.

Shelly sighed. "Nothing much really . . ."

Mikey looked at her curiously; she didn't look too happy. "What's wrong?"

"Well, its like, just that, well, now that like, those dragon guys are gonna be leaving or whatever; so are like, you. And I like, really don't like, want you to, and . . . ugh, its like, complicated." said Shelly.

"No, I know what you mean." said Mikey. He then glanced over at Raph, Cori, and Ashton. "Come on, let's go somewhere else and talk. This TV is kinda loud."

"K." said Shelly.

Mikey and Shelly then got up and went to Shelly's room.

Mikey turned to Shelly. 

Shelly looked at him for a moment. "What's New York like?" she finally asked.

"Its cool. You've got Central Park, and great pizza shops, and bounty hunters . . . ok maybe that isn't the cool part; but I like it." said Mikey.

"Oh." said Shelly. "What do you like, think of L.A.?"

"Its rad too, I mean, it's a hard choice between here and New York." said Mikey. "The only thing I think NY has got over LA is the skateboarding rink me and the guys go to at night sometimes; its cool there."

"You like, like to skateboard?" 

"Definitely!" said Mikey.

Shelly smiled. "Come on, I gotta like, show you something you'll like." She then opened the door to her room, and walked out, followed by Mikey.

Pidgina watched curiously as they left Shelly's room. "What were you two doing in there?!" she exclaimed.

"Nothing." said Mikey.

"We're going out now Pidgina, bye! Be back later!" said Shelly as she and Mikey left the lair.

"Be careful!" Pidgina shouted towards the lair entrance/exit. 

In Rita's lab, she and Donny were cleaning up from when they made the explosives.

Rita put something in the trash while Donny took a look around. 

"This is a great setup." he thought out loud.

"You should say so; you helped me to set it up." said Rita, walking over to him.

"Yeah." he sighed. "Isn't as great as the one I have at home. I'm constantly competing with the others for space."

"I can imagine." said Rita. She then took a deep breath. "So, when do you think you guys are leaving?"

"I don't know; probably after Leo is assured that the dragons went back to their New York fortress." replied Donny.

"Oh."

They both stood in silence for a while.

"Donny."

Donny turned to her. "Yeah?"

Rita looked up at him for a moment, and found herself at a loss for words. She knew what she wanted to say, but just couldn't find the words. She smiled bashfully as she turned away. "Forget it."

"No, what were you going to say?" asked Donny.

"It was nothing." said Rita, still looking away from Donny.

Donny gently guided her face to look back at him. "No, it was something. Just say it."

Rita looked into his eyes; she'd grown so fond of him in the past weeks she'd known him. She sighed deeply. "I, I . . . I don't want you to go." She then looked away shyly. "I know I shouldn't think that way, but that's just how I feel."

"Who says you shouldn't think that way?" asked Donny. "I feel the same. I don't wanna go."

Rita looked back up at him.

"Not if I have to leave you here anyway." said Donny.

"But what about your duty as a ninja, I mean, you gotta fight those dragon, things, right?" asked Rita.

"Where there's a will, there's a way. If my will is to stay here and be with you, there's a way for the others to go back home and fight the dragons without me; and still be successful." said Donny. 

"You'd stay? For me?" asked Rita. "Why?"

Donny softly touched Rita's face with his hand. "Cos, I love you."

Rita felt as if she could melt. "I love you too." she said in a tone close to a whisper.

Donny then leaned in and kissed her.

Outside the lair, and outside the sewer, Shelly took Mikey to a park nearby. They then walked towards a lighted area in the middle of the park.

When they walked past the trees that surrounded it, they came to a big skating area where there was a flat skating rink, some obstacles for the flat area, and various U-shaped skating areas where people often did tricks on, and some benches at the sides for spectators.

"Shelladelic!" exclaimed Mikey.

Shelly giggled. "I like, knew you'd like it." 

"Now all I need is a skateboard." said Mikey.

Shelly looked around for a moment, then found one lying on the ground a few feet away. She picked it up and handed it to Mikey. "This like, good enough?"

Mikey looked over at the skateboard. "Perfect!" He then took it from her and put it on the ground. "Is this yours?"

"Nah, I'm more of a roller-skating girl." said Shelly. "Its just one of the skateboards that get forgotten here during the day."

"Cool!" Mikey then took the skateboard over to one the U-shaped skating areas and started skateboarding. "This is great!" he exclaimed.

Shelly smiled as she just sat on a bench watching Mikey have fun.

Back at the lair, Ashton looked around momentarily from TV watching.

"Hey, either of you seen where Venus and Leo went?" she asked.

"Nope." said Raph and Cori.

Ashton then looked back at them. "I'm gonna take a walk; I'm getting cramped just sitting here." She then got up and began leaving the lair.

"Where are you going?" asked Splinter.

"To talk a walk, and probably find Leo and Venus." said Ashton.

"Be careful." said Splinter.

"Always am." said Ashton as she left the lair.

Later on that evening, Mikey and Shelly were walking back from the skating rink in the park.

"That was awesome Shelly! That's better than the one in New York, and we don't have to break into it at night to skateboard!" exclaimed Mikey.

"Break in? Like, wow." said Shelly.

"Don't worry, we put everything back and we never steal." said Mikey.

"K." said Shelly with a smile.

They walked back to the lair hand in hand.

Ashton was still on her walk, and as she walked back to the lair, passed Donny and Rita walking back to the lair, also hand in hand.

"Hey lovebirds." said Ashton with a smile.

Donny and Rita smiled.

"Hey Ash." said Donny.

Ashton continued on in her walk.

Later on, as she took a different route back to the lair, she heard noises. Her ears twitched in different directions and tried to decipher the noises. After she found out what the noises were, she backed up, and began taking the normal route back to the lair. 

"I will never again look for Leo and Venus." she said to herself as she walked back to the lair.

Back at the lair, everyone was getting ready for bed.

"Hey Ash, how was the walk?" asked Raph.

"Eh, it was ok." said Ashton.

"Did ya find Leo and Venus?" asked Cori.

"Yes and no." said Ashton.

"Come again?" said Cori.

"Are there any other rooms in this sewer system that you all made?" asked Ashton.

"Well, Leo asked earlier about a room for a dojo and took a mat with him and Venus. So I directed him to one at the other end. Why?" asked Cori.

"They won't be coming home tonight." said Ashton as she went to the couch to sleep.

"Oh my." said Pidgina.

"Why . . ."

Ashton held up her pointer finger. "No more questions, you've all been a lovely audience. Good night." she then turned over on the couch, and went to sleep.

"Hmm . . ." thought Master Splinter.


	32. The Saga Continues

The next evening, in the back of the lab, the technicians were piling up rubble to be covered up. As they did so, a shadowy presence came over them. They looked confused, and looked up. There they saw Dragon Lord and his army standing there. A couple of the technicians fainted while a couple of others gasped. The rest began running.

"Stop!!" 

Dragon Lord's commanding voice made them stop dead in their tracks. They turned frightened eyes towards Dragon Lord.

"We're not here to harm you; we're here to assist you." said Dragon Lord. "I must speak with the T.G.R.I. scientist."

"D, d, Dr. Rigler is, inside." said one of the technicians as she faced Dragon Lord.

"Capital. You must bring me to him." said Dragon Lord. Then he turned to the warriors. "The rest of you, help the technicians clean up. Listen to what they tell you to do." he ordered the rank.

The warriors nodded.

Dragon Lord, with Wick close by, then went into the lab with the other technician.

Inside, the technician brought Dragon Lord downstairs.

"Dr. Rigler, you have a, um, guest." said the technician.

Dr. Rigler turned around. "Who could possibly . . ." he stopped as he saw Dragon Lord. "My goodness."

"Dr. Rigler I presume." said Dragon Lord. "I am Dragon Lord, and this is my assistant, Wick."

"Hello." said Wick.

"What, what are you?" asked Dr. Rigler.

"Dragons, what do you think?!" exclaimed Wick.

Dragon Lord hit him and he fell off his shoulder. "Excuse Wick, he's a bit, impatient."

Dr. Rigler snapped out of his staring trance. "To what do I owe this, eh, visit?"

"I'm glad you asked." said Dragon Lord. "We must talk about this ooze you produce; there are ways in which we can both help each other out."

Dr. Rigler sat down as Dragon Lord began explaining what he meant.

Back in the sewers, Donny was looking at the 'eye-in-the-sky' program on Rita's computer. He noticed that there was no activity in the LA dragon fortress. 

"They left already?" he asked himself. He then turned around to see if Rita had come in yet, but she didn't. He then got up from the computer, and went back to the main lair.

At the lair, Donny saw that no one but Ashton, Splinter, and Pidgina were around.

"Sheesh, where is everybody?" asked Donny.

"Out. I presume they're enjoying each other's company before the inevitable separation." said Pidgina.

"Hmm . . ." Donny said thoughtfully. Then he walked up to Ashton. "You busy?"

"Nope; never am really." said Ashton.

"Good; I need you to do me a favor." said Donny.

"No I will not get any more pizza or Chinese food; I feel like a freakin' delivery person." said Ashton.

"No no no, it's more important than that. I want you to help me check out Dragon Lord's LA fortress." said Donny.

"Why?" asked Ashton as she stood up from her chair.

"Because according to the eye-in-the-sky, they're not there anymore." said Donny.

"They went back home then." said Ashton.

"Since when do the dragons give up that easily?" asked Donny.

Ashton thought for a moment. "I see your point. All right, I'm up for it, let's go."

"Excellent." said Donny. He then turned to Splinter and Pidgina. "If anyone asks, we're out making sure the dragons really are gone ok?"

"Okay." said Splinter.

Donny and Ashton then left the lair.

Splinter and Pidgina looked around them at the empty, quiet lair.

"All the kids are out, and we're here just sitting in recliners; knitting and reading." said Pidgina. She sighed heavily.

"I feel old." said Splinter.

Pidgina nodded.

Out at the fortress, the front door was wide open, so Donny and Ashton just walked in.

"This place is empty as what." said Ashton.

"They couldn't of gone back already." said Donny.

They both looked around for a while, and found nothing.

Just as they were about to leave, Ashton spotted a piece of paper by Dragon Lord's throne. She went over to it, and picked it up.

"What is it?" asked Donny.

Ashton looked at it carefully. "Uh oh."

"What? What's uh oh? I don't like the sound of uh oh." said Donny.

"It's a map to the lab." said Ashton, then she looked at Donny. "I think they went there."

"What can they do there? The ooze is all destroyed." said Donny.

"But the scientist isn't." said Ashton. "Something tells me it's not time to leave LA yet."

"Oh boy." said Donny.

Back at the lab, Dragon Lord, Dr. Rigler, and Wick stood in a room looking at the technicians fixing up the auxiliary production tank.

"How long will that take?" asked Dragon Lord.

"It should be working by tomorrow." said Dr. Rigler.

"Capital." said Dragon Lord.

"I still can't believe that there are actually mutant Turtles, mutated by this ooze, out there. Fascinating." said Dr. Rigler. "And you say I get a share of the Turtles?"

Dragon Lord nodded.

"Excellent." said Dr. Rigler. "I'll get your warriors that ooze, and you get me the Turtles; sounds good to me."

"Then we have a deal?" asked Dragon Lord.

"Of course." said Dr. Rigler.

The two shook hands on it.

"Well then, as your warriors help, I'll show you some of my experiments." said Dr. Rigler.

Dr. Quease soon came downstairs and joined the trio.

"Ah, Dr. Quease, you've made it." said Dragon Lord.

"Yes . . ." said Dr. Quease somewhat absent-mindedly. He took a look around at the lab, and longed for his own that wasn't cooped up inside a fortress. He got introduced to Dr. Rigler, who soon shared with them his experiences in experimenting.


	33. Plan B

Back at the lair, when Donny and Ashton got back, everyone else was there.

"Hey, you're all back, finally." said Ashton.

"Sorry I didn't come to the lab like I said I would; I found some really nice things in the junkyard." said Rita.

"That's ok." said Donny, looking at her fondly. Then he sighed deeply. "I wish I could tell you all that I have good news; but I don't."

"Why? What happened?" asked Leo.

"The dragons went to the lab." said Ashton. "And since that scientist guy isn't gone or anything . . . oh I don't know, stuff could happen. They could probably make more ooze."

"Ah great." said Raph. "Yo, didn't those bomb things destroy enough? Why are we worryin if the leatherheads meet up with the scientist? Big deal. They meet 'im, they eat 'im."

"Somehow I don't feel it's that simple." said Venus.

Everyone turned to her.

"Hey, she's talking again." said Raph.

"And she's not hoarse this time." said Cori.

"Cori!" exclaimed Pidgina.

"What? It's the truth." said Cori.

Pidgina shook her head.

Venus sighed. "Like I was saying, I don't feel its that simple. Something tells me that Dragon Lord's will may be more powerful than we have imagined."

"So what does this mean, we gotta go back to that creepy lab?" asked Ashton.

"I'm afraid so." said Donny. 

"Crap." mumbled Ashton.

"And just what are we gonna do there now that we ain't already done?" asked Cori.

"Get rid of the scientist." said Donny.

"Oooo, can we take him back to NY and throw him in the East River?" asked Ashton.

"No!" exclaimed Leo. "What's wrong with you, that's murder!"

"Hey, what'd I tell you about guys in white lab coats? I can't stand 'em, and I don't give a horse's butt what happens to 'em." said Ashton.

"Like I said before Leo, leave it alone. Ashton will be Ashton; and that's all there is to it." said Raph.

"No doubt." said Ashton.

Leo sighed. "All right fine, whatever. Lets, get ready and go."

Venus sighed heavily. "You mean I have to get up _again_?"

"Yeah Mei, come on, the adrenaline from fighting will get your energy up again." said Leo as he began helping Venus up out of her chair.

"Wow, you're still tired? Heh, way to go Leo." said Raph.

"Raphael!" exclaimed Splinter.

"What?"

"Freaks." said Ashton as she walked off.

Everyone got ready for their trip to the lab, once again, and were off to the train station.

The next morning, at the lab, the Turtles and Ashton saw that a good majority of the lab was cleaned up.

"No way." said Ashton. "This place was a mess the other day."  
"Darn dragons." said Leo.

"Come on, let's haul our shells in there and kick some butt." said Raph.

"For once, I actually agree with Raph." said Leo.

They all then began approaching the lab.

Donny noticed Rita lagging behind. He hung back and walked next to her. "What's up?"

"I can't fight. I mean I know you all tried to prepare me for it, but I really can't." said Rita.

"Don't worry; you stick by me, and I'll make sure none of them lays a leathery hand on you." he said, putting his arm around her reassuringly.

Rita smiled.

They entered the lab through the manhole entrance they normally came in. Upstairs, the lab was busy with technicians and dragons working together to get things back in working order.

"Hmm, this is gonna be tough. We can't just place the bombs like last time." said Leo. "There are so many people and dragons around."

"These aren't placing bombs anyway; these are grenades." said Donny.

Leo quickly turned to him. "I thought you only made placing bombs."

"These were auxiliary bombs we made, ya know, just in case." said Rita.

Leo smiled. "Leave it up to the brains to make things a little bit easier."

"So what is this, we're wingin it this time? Hey fearless leader; what's our plan?" asked Ashton.

"Call me that one more time . . ."

"No time for that Leo." said Donny. "Look, we gotta get the scientist, and destroy all the equipment that they started rebuilding."

"Where are we gonna find the scientist?" asked Mikey.

"The one place we forgot to mess up." said Ashton. Then she turned to the others. "The basement."

"This is the worst planning ever . . ."

"Oh shutup Leo and let's just go, this cellar is smelling worse and worse by the second." said Cori.

They all then exited the cellar, and began their sketchy, but necessary mission.


	34. Plan B carried out

Upstairs, using a smokescreen created by Venus, Ashton and Raph went to the basement of the lab.

On the first floor, Cori was startled by a sparking electrical wire and jumped backwards. Unfortunately, she bumped right into a dragon. As she turned around, the dragon turned around too.

The dragon took out his sword as it growled.

"Oooo, butt kickin time." said Cori with a smirk. "I love it." she said as she began fighting the dragon.

Downstairs, Ashton and Raph hid behind a large cart as they heard Dr. Rigler and Dr. Quease talking.

"How are we gonna get him?" asked Raph.

Ashton sighed deeply. "I'll be the live bait; u just find a way to capture him when he's not looking."

Raph looked at her. "You sure you wanna do that? Quease is out there too, and you two don't exactly have the best past together."

"I'll be fine; we all gotta face our fears someday." shrugged Ashton.

Raph watched as Ashton stepped out of hiding. "You're a brave girl Ash." he said quietly.

Ashton walked right out in front of Dr. Rigler and Dr. Quease. "Wassup." she said.

They both turned to her. 

Dr. Quease gasped. "You!"

Ashton couldn't stop her eyes from narrowing angrily at him. "Yeah, me." She was able to somewhat suppress her nails from extending.

"And who is this?" asked Dr. Rigler.

"The surviving experiment of mine I told you about." said Dr. Quease.

Dr. Rigler looked at her curiously. "Fascinating. She is a rather interesting creature."

"What puzzles me right now is why you're here." said Dr. Quease, looking at Ashton quizzically.

Ashton smiled slyly.

Suddenly, Raph pounced on Dr. Rigler and knocked him down to the floor.

"Guards!" exclaimed Dr. Quease.

Ashton's nails on her hands and feet extended as a small army of dragons came at her.

They saw Ashton, and stopped advancing towards her. 

"What are you waiting for? Attack her!" exclaimed Dr. Quease.

The dragons looked at each other, then reluctantly charged at Ashton.

"Haven't you idiots learned yet?" Ashton said. Then she leaped at them and began attacking them ferociously.

Raph was tying the struggling Dr. Rigler up in rope.

"Get off me! I demand to know whats going on!" complained Dr. Rigler.

Raph turned him over momentarily to continue tying him up.

Dr. Rigler saw Raph and his eyes widened in surprise. "Y, you're a mutant Turtle." 

"No, really?" asked Raph sarcastically. He then turned Dr. Rigler over again, somewhat roughly, and continued tying him up.

Ashton had beaten all the dragons, and they were lying on the ground bleeding. She looked over at Raph, who had Dr. Rigler completely tied up and gagged.

"Mission accomplished." said Raph as he held up the squirming Dr. Rigler. 

"Great then; time to go." said Ashton.

An explosion upstairs shook the basement.

"Okay, its _definitely_ time to go." said Raph. 

"Not so fast." said a voice behind Ashton. 

Ashton turned around and came face to face with Dragon Lord. She turned to run, but Dragon Lord quickly grabbed her by the throat and pulled her back towards him. 

"No!" exclaimed Raph.

Dragon Lord lifted Ashton up by her neck; choking her. "I can't seem to get rid of you with hired help, so I'll have to destroy you myself."

Raph stood there confused at what to do.

Ashton gasped for air. "GO!" she shouted to Raph.

"But . . ."

"Go (cough) now!" exclaimed Ashton. 

Raph could tell that by the look on Ashton's face, she meant business. Grabbing Dr. Rigler, he reluctantly left the basement.

Wick stood by grinning. "Choke her, choke her to death majesty!"

"I must thank Quease for alerting me to the fact that you were here, cat." said Dragon Lord, squeezing Ashton's throat tighter and tighter.

Her face was turning red and no matter what movement she made, she couldn't free herself from Dragon Lord's grasp. She scraped at his hands, but left no more than minor scratches as marks.

Upstairs, Raph was carrying Dr. Rigler along on his shoulder.

"You got him? Excellent!" said Donny.

Rita just then shrieked as a dragon began charging at her. She then quickly grabbed a fallen pipe and whacked the dragon over the head with it.

Donny looked surprised as the dragon fainted. "Good going hon."

Rita smiled weakly.

"Where's Ashton?" asked Donny.

"Dragon Lord got her." said Raph. "We gotta help; he's gonna kill her." he said worriedly.

Just then, several more loud explosions sounded as the lab caught on fire once again and pieces of plaster and wall began falling.

"We gotta get outta here!" exclaimed Mikey as he, Shelly and Cori ran by.

"But Ashton!" said Raph. "She told me to go but I can't just leave her there!"

"Where?!" asked Cori over the noise of the explosions.

Technicians ran by in a panic without so much as even stopping to notice the mutants conversing in the hallway.

"This place is gonna blow!" exclaimed one of them as he ran out.

"We have to go!" said Leo and he and Venus ran by.

"I can't leave Ashton there!" said Raph.

Just then, a figure whizzed by them.

"What was that?" asked Leo.

"Something just as quick as Ashton . . ." said Donny. Then he thought for a moment. "No way." he said in disbelief.

Downstairs in the basement, Ashton was blacking out because of the lack of oxygen.

"Goodbye, cat." said Dragon Lord, smiling gleefully.

Just then, Dragon Lord was knocked in the face, stomach, and behind the knees rapidly and harshly, so that he fell down. In the process, he let go of Ashton, who collapsed on the floor; too weak to start gasping for air.

"What the . . ."

Dragon Lord looked up to see Schiam standing there. "You!"

"Yeah, me." said Schiam, with a strange, angry reddish glow in his eyes.

"What are you doing here?!" exclaimed Dragon Lord angrily as he got up.

"Revenge." said Schiam angrily. "We had a deal, you were to leave my dimension alone if I was to destroy her for you. I went back to find that a dragon sect had taken over."

"You went back on the deal; I had every right to!" said Dragon Lord.

"They were there even before I had went back on the deal." said Schiam. He arched his back in preparation to attack Dragon Lord again.

"This place is gonna blow!" screamed a technician as she ran upstairs with a few others.

"The auxiliary machine is unstable! Get out of here!" exclaimed another as he ran up the stairs to exit the lab.

Schiam looked towards the back of the basement lab and heard the machine falling apart.

Wick and Dr. Quease began running out of the building.

Dragon Lord, noticing Schiam's distraction, pushed him out of the way.

Schiam slammed into a glass window pane, breaking the glass as he fell backwards into the experiment room.

Dragon Lord then went over to Ashton who was just regaining strength, took out his sword, and was about to kill her. Schiam quickly grabbed the sword, threw it down, then grabbed Ashton, and quickly exited the building.

"NO!!" bellowed Dragon Lord angrily. Then hearing explosions from the machine, began leaving as well.

From the outside, the lab was seen burning.

Suddenly, a rumble from within shook the building and surrounding areas, and a humongous explosion caused the lab to break into millions of small pieces of flying debris.

From across the lab on the field, the Turtles watched the spectacular show of fire and flying debris.

"Like, whooaaa." said Shelly in awe.

Raph looked up at the building, scared that Ashton was still in there.

Dr. Rigler complained loudly through his gag.

"Shutup." said Cori as she kicked the scientist.

They all stood there for the longest time, staring at the burning pile of rubble that was once a laboratory.

"Ashton." Raph muttered silently.

"She's fine." said a voice.

Everyone turned to the side to see Schiam put Ashton on the ground near the Turtles.

"You!" exclaimed Raph.

"Everyone's favorite phrase when they see me I see." said Schiam. "Yeah, its me."

Ashton rolled over on the ground and began coughing and gasping for air. 

Raph rushed over to her. "You're alive!" he said hugging her.

"Ye, yeah (cough), but can I please have some air?" Ashton said in a hoarse whisper.

"Oh sure, sure, sorry." said Raph as he let go of her. Then he looked over at Schiam. "You saved her. Why?"

"Don't get all mushy about it; I didn't do it for her, I did it for me. That dragon had his dragons take over my home when I wasn't there, so I wanted revenge. What better way than to stop him from his goal?" he gestured towards Ashton. "Destroying her."

"Thanks." said Ashton.

Schiam glanced at her. "Yeah, whatever."

"Wait, so that means you don't got a home anymore?" said Cori.

"Oh yes I do; I just have to get rid of the riff raff; won't be too hard. I've got allies." said Schiam. "I'm going now; I think I've made that dragon guy mad enough."

"Bye Schiam." said Ashton.

Schiam looked back at her for a moment, then turned away and sped off to his home.

"Its over now right? I mean, we destroyed it all, its in fragments now. We got the scientist dude; we can go home now right?" asked Cori.

"Yeah, we can go back now." said Donny.

The Turtles and Ashton then turned away from the scene, and began walking back towards the train station.


	35. Suprises

When they all got back to L.A., they took a different train stop than normal, and went to a police precinct.

There, Ashton walked in, wearing her hat, and dropped Dr. Rigler off in front of the main desk.

"Here's a criminal for ya." said Ashton. Then she handed them the wallet that he kept on him. "Dr. Lawson Rigler. Former T.G.R.I. scientist . . ."

"And all around jerk." said a female voice.

Ashton turned to the side and saw a female technician from the lab.

The technician looked at Ashton for a moment. "I'll take over from here."

Ashton nodded, then left.

Outside, she joined the others.

"So what they say?" asked Mikey.

"Well, they just kinda looked confused, but I think that technician that walked in is gonna make his life a living nightmare." said Ashton.

Raph grinned.

They all then walked back to the lair.

Back at the lair, they all settled down for lunch, then relaxed a little while afterwards.

"Well, I guess we'll be heading back soon, now that the dragons are gone." said Leo.

There was an awkward silence in the room.

"Ummm, I'm not, going back." said Donny.

Everyone turned to him.

"What?" asked Leo.

"I'm not going back. I don't want to." said Donny.

"Why?" asked Leo.

"Do you really have to ask?" replied Donny. Then he went over to Rita and put an arm around her. "I want to stay with Rita. I could search a lifetime before I find someone as special as her; I can't leave her." 

Rita looked up at Donny happily, then back at everyone else.

"I'm not going back either." said Mikey. He then stood by Shelly and put an arm around her. "I found a groovy chick, and I'm not about to leave her."

Shelly smiled widely and threw her arms around Mikey. "Yay! You're staying!"

They then parted from their hug, and looked back at Leo.

"Wow, well, um . . ." He then turned to the side. "Master?"

Master Splinter looked at Donny and Rita, then at Mikey and Shelly. "You both have made your decisions. You're mature enough, and as such I will not try to discourage you from the decisions you have made." 

"Thank you Master." said Donny.

"Thanks!" said Mikey.

"What about you Raph? You staying too?" asked Leo.

"On the contrary, I'll go back." said Raph, then he turned to Cori. "As long as you'll come back with me."

Cori looked at him slightly surprised, but then smiled. "Eh, LA was gettin boring anyway."

Raph smiled back at her.

"Ashton?" asked Leo.

"I'm not feelin the scorpions in the trees out here; New York is where I belong." said Ashton.

Leo sighed heavily. "Well then, I guess it's settled. Me, Venus, Ashton, Raph and Cori are comin back to New York."

"And me." said Master Splinter.

"Yes of course, and you Master." said Leo. "Then, Donny and Rita, Mikey and Shelly and Pidgina are staying here in LA."

"No doubt!" said Mikey.

"Wow, after all these years, we're gonna live on opposite sides of the continent." said Leo, somewhat sadly. "I'm gonna miss you guys."

"Hey, don't worry, me and Rita will make some sort of communicating device so that we can always keep in touch." said Donny.

"Wow, we've got a lot of moving back and forth to do. I've gotta get my stuff from New York." said Mikey.

"This is like, soooo exciting!" said Shelly happily. She grabbed Mikey and gave him a big kiss. "Sorry sweety like, excitement took over."

"That's ok." grinned Mikey. "I like excitement."

Shelly giggled.

That day, they began the long back and forth progress of moving from L.A. to N.Y.; and vice versa.

One day, before they all moved into their new homes, they got together for one last party all together in L.A.

As the party ended, everyone was hugging each other goodbye.

"It was nice meeting you Splinter, we should keep in touch." said Pidgina.

"I agree. You must come visit sometime; we will more than love to have your company." said Splinter.

"Thank you; I'll make sure I do." smiled Pidgina.

They hugged each other, then went on to hug their 'children' before they left.

"Oh Corina! I'll miss you so much!" sobbed Pidgina as she hugged Cori.

"I'll miss you too ma; thanks for being there for me all these years." she then parted from the hug. "I'll be back for visits; don't worry."

Pidgina smiled.

Splinter gave both Mikey and Donny a hug. "My sons." he said smiling, fighting back tears.

"Don't worry Master, we'll visit. And you can come visit us anytime too!" said Mikey.

Splinter nodded with a smile.

As everyone was about to get going, Leo tapped a glass with a fork. 

"Excuse me everyone." he said. Then he looked towards Mikey, Donny, and Raph.

They all nodded, and moved to a different part of the room. Leo joined them.

The guys then stood facing everyone else and nodded. 

Venus came and stood next to Leo.

Cori came and stood next to Raph.

Shelly came and stood next to Mikey.

Rita came and stood next to Donny.

"We have an announcement to make." said Leo.

The girls then held up their hands and faced them towards everyone with the back end showing.

"We're all getting married!" said the guys and girls together.

Ashton smiled widely. "Yay!"

Splinter and Pidgina looked surprised.

"Oh my." said Pidgina. "I'm getting so old!"

"Congratulations to you all." smiled Splinter.

"When's the wedding?" asked Ashton.

"Well, since we can't exactly have a big one, and since this is technically the last time we're gonna be together for a while." said Leo. 

"We're having it today." said Raph.

"Wow." said Ashton raising her eyebrows slightly. "Talk about a surprise wedding."

"Come on, we set up a room in the sewer system just for it." said Venus.

Everyone then began walking out of the lair, and to a room set up like a wedding chapel.

"Oh this is sooo cool." said Ashton.

"Master, if you'd please do the honors." said Leo.

Splinter smiled. "Of course." He then stepped up to the spot designated for the one who marries the couples.

Rita started some music, and the quadruple wedding ceremony began.

After the wedding, they all sat around to eat a cake Rita baked.

Pidgina sobbed at the table. "My girls are all grown up!"

"Aww Pidgina!" said Shelly giving her a big hug.

Ashton just chuckled a bit and shook her head. 


	36. Finale

Later on that evening, after wedding cake and everything, Ashton sat on the rooftop of a building near the L.A. manhole before they all left to NY. She took in the air and felt the cool breeze characteristic of that altitude, unpolluted from the streets below. She thought about all the changes that were going to take place in her life now that two of her "family members" wouldn't be living with her anymore. 

Just then, a small noise caused her ears to twitch. She smirked slightly.

"I thought you'd be back in your dimension by now." Ashton said to Schiam as he stepped out of the shadows.

"My allies and I cleared out the dragons, so I should be going back soon." said Schiam. "I just thought I'd say bye first." he said stepping up next to Ashton.

Ashton stood up and walked to the edge of the building. "Trying to be friendly are you?"

"Hardly." said Schiam indifferently. "You're not important to me. I just don't like to be forgotten. After all, I am a legend."

"Yeah, sure." smirked Ashton, turning to him. "The snake guy from another dimension; yeah, a real legend."

Schiam rolled his eyes and looked away from Ashton. "Where are you going now?"

"Back to New York. L.A. is nice, but it's much nicer out there. I don't have to worry about scorpions in Central Park." replied Ashton.

Schiam smirked. "I see." He then turned to Ashton and held out his hand.

Ashton looked at him with a confused expression, but eventually took his hand.

Schiam shook her hand. "Good luck in life."

"You too." smiled Ashton. "Whenever the rain forest gets lonely, Central Park's always got an empty tree for ya."

Schiam let go of her hand. "I don't get lonely." Then he turned back to her. "But I'll keep that in mind."

Ashton nodded.

Schiam then pressed a button on a small device he had, and a vortex to his dimension opened. He waved as he disappeared into the vortex.

Ashton looked after him, then chuckled a bit and shook her head at the irony. Her worst enemy was now a casual acquaintance. She then turned and went back to the L.A. lair.

That evening, the Turtles went their separate ways and began brand new lives.

The End.

****

*It's a wrap people! Thanks for all of the wonderful reviews, and thanks most of all for reading this story, I really appreciate it! "You've all been a lovely audience!" See ya next fic!


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